The editorial categories are research topics that have guided researchers during the recovery phase and continue to be the impetus behind the Documents Project’s digital archive and the Critical Documents book series. Developed by the project’s Editorial Board, each of the teams analyzed this framework and adapted it to their local contexts in developing their research objectives and work plans during the Recovery Phase. Learn more on the Editorial Framework page.
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This article is an interview that Damián Bayón conducted with Henry Russell-Hitchcock on the subject of modern Latin American architecture. Bayón praises Russell-Hitchcock, the scholar and curator, as “one of the great world authorities on modern architecture,” adding that he is preparing an exhibition on this topic for MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Damián Carlos Bayón (1915–95) was an art critic, teacher and author of numerous books. He held a Ph.D in history and was a disciple of Jorge Romero Brest (1905-89); in 1948, he became one of the founders of the magazine Ver y estimar, for which Brest served as editor. The following year, Bayón moved to Paris, and continued to collaborate on the magazine until 1955 (the final year of its publication). He then began working with theoretician Pierre Francastel. In the next two decades, he became professor in the University of Texas at Austin. Ver y estimar had two publication eras: the first encompassed its first thirty-four issues, published between 1948 and 1953; the second stage, between 1954 and 1955, consisted of ten issues. This publication was meant to be educational with regard to art criticism, for its readers and for the students of Romero Brest who collaborated on the magazine. Its articles dealt with artists, exhibitions and problems within the local milieu and international scene contexts, as well as with different historical periods. This article by Bayón permits insight into the topics that interested the critic, especially with respect to contemporary Latin American architecture. Some of the questions are formulated to make comparisons between modern Latin American architecture (with the rest of the world) as well as between the modern architecture of various Latin American countries. Other questions point to specific features of modern Latin American architecture in general.