THE NEW ARCHITECTURE OF MEXICO
Esther Born [Author/Photographer]
Esther Born [Author/Photographer]: THE NEW ARCHITECTURE OF MEXICO. New York: William Morrow & Co. for The Architectural Record, 1937. First edition. Quarto. Mustard cloth embossed and decorated in red. Photo illustrated dust jacket. 159 pp. Black and white photo essays. Book design by Ernest Born. Cloth slightly dust darkened to edges. The rare dust jacket is lightly chipped to spine ends and very slightly nicked and worn to folds and edges. A very good or better copy in a very good or better dust jacket. Rare thus.
9 x 12 hardcover book with 159 pages devoted to the Functional Modern Architecture of Mexico. Author and Photographer Esther Born spent months in Mexico photographing the contemporary native functional architecture. Her architecture training, combined with her good eye, led to exceptional building photography, and her singular vision binds this book in a cohesive fasion unknown to the other conspectuses of the era. The reason this volume is never included in the various lists of great Photo Books is more the result of its relative obscurity than any lack of merit.
Ms. Born also included well-illustrated sections on Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Mural Painting, and Pottery. Placing Architecture within the context of the other Plastic Arts was an editorial decision that mirrored Alfred H. Barr’s inclusive—and at the time radical—manifesto for the Museum of Modern Art.
Architect and Husband Ernest Born assembled all of these elements in a striking layout with sensitive typography and rhythmic and dynamic page design. The jacket design is that old weird American collection of word and image that tried to be sophisticated and European, but only reinforced the fundamental American character of the product.
Contents:
- Acknowledgments
- Schoold of Industrial Technics, Mexico City
- The Pyramid of Cuicuilco
- Editorial Foreword
- Plan Development of Mexico City: Carlos Contreras
- Soil and Foundation Conditions in Mexico: José A. Cuevas
- Architect as Contractor in Mexico: F. Sanchez Fogarty
- The New Architecture in Mexico: Justino Fernandez
- Social Progress and The New Architecture: Beach Riley
- Mexican Examples: Industrial, Schools, Institutions, Hospitals, Residential, Markets, Commercial, Parks, and Public Works and Utilities.
- General Portfolio
- Contemporary Painting and Sculpture: Mural Painting, Other Painters, Painting in General, Sculpture, and Pottery.
- Bibliography
Includes work by Juan O’Gorman, Luis Barragan, Carlos Tarditi, Enrique De La Mora, Carlos Contreras, José Beltrán, Ortiz Monasterio, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Alfredo Zalce, Paul O’ Higgins, Gabriel Fernandez Ledesma, Doctor Atl, Julio Castellanos, Maria Izquierdo, Cecil Crawford O’ Gorman, Roberto Montenegro, Antonio Ruiz, Manuel Rodriguez, Lozano, Cesar Canti, Augustin Lazo, Luis Ortiz Monasterio, Guillermo Ruiz, Mardonio Magana, Antonio Muñoz Garcia, José Villagran Garcia, Carlos Greenham, Enrique Aragon Echeagaray, José Arnal, José Creixell, Cervantes & Ortega, Kunhardt & Capilla, Enrique Yañez, Luis Martinez Negrete, Carlos Obregon Santacilia, Luis Martinez Negrete, Juan José Barragan, José Villagran Garcia, Juan Legarreta, Fernando B. Puga, Ignacio Diaz Morales, Rudolfo Weber, Enrique Del Moral, and Guteirrez Camarena.
“This book shows modern architecture in Mexico, chiefly in Mexico City. The quantity of it comes as a surprise. Such a quantity would be unexpected in any North American city; but to the Northerner, acquainted with Mexico only through literature and hearsay, the energy displayed and the up-to-the-minute quality are doubly astonishing. We had thought of our neighbors as engaged in pursuits different than ours. These people were our opposites. Their territory was all mountainous, contrasted with our level central basin; it was occupied chiefly by Indians, not white men; colonized by Spaniards instead of Englishmen; spotted with huge ruins older than Rome and of a scale comparable comparable to Egypt. The inhabitants, we were led to believe, supported themselves chiefly by handicraft, lacked a sense of time, were of a mystical rather than a practical bent of mind and, in countless other ways, differed from us as much as human beings could; besides, they were much happier...." — Editorial Foreword
“Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs were taken by Esther Born. Data and material were collected and arranged by Esther Born and Ernest Born. (Esther Born and Ernest Born were both students of architecture at the University of California under the distinguished teacher, John Galen Howard. Disgusted with the amateur photographs she took during a trip to Europe, Esther Born studied photography as preparation for specialization and as an aid to her future architectural work. Ernest Born is well known both in San Francisco and New York as a brilliant designer, and has been associated with The Architectural Record and other publications in designing architecture, typographical layouts and editorial work.”