Maqueta del Pabellón de España en la Exposición Internacional de París de 1937 (Spanish Pavilion Model for the Paris International Exposition of 1937)

Josep Lluís Sert

Barcelona, Spain, 1902 - 1983

Luis Lacasa

Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain, 1899 - Moscow, Russia, 1966
  • Date: 
    1978
  • Material: 
    Wood, copper thread, plaster, plastic, acetate, methacrylate and paint
  • Technique: 
    Assemblage
  • Descriptive technique: 
    Model made by Jorge Brunet for the exhibition "Josep Lluis Sert. Architecture and Urban Design"
  • Dimensions: 
    53 x 97 x 97 cm / With display case: 67 x 96,7 x 96,7 cm / Scale: 1:50
  • Category: 
    Architecture
  • Entry date: 
    1988
  • Register number: 
    AS06432

The Spanish Pavilion at the International Exposition in Paris in 1937 was an example of rationalist architecture and the use of modern functional materials applied to traditional building plans, such as the architectural distribution around a patio. The building acted as a kind of screen to show foreign powers that here was a state which, in spite of the circumstances caused by a Civil War, enjoyed social, cultural and economic activity, contributing to a political project aimed at uniting modernity and humanity. Once both the architecture and the curatorship had been put in the hands of Luis Lacasa, the project was joined by Josep Lluís Sert, Spain’s most internationally known architect at the time. Both men collaborated on a building that contrasted sharply with the monumentality of the other European pavilions and was clearly designed for the diversity of the works being exhibited and the activities being run, in order to garner international aid and to proclaim the continued strength of a Republic under siege.
The model, made for the exhibition Josep Lluis Sert. Arquitectura y Diseño Urbano, celebrated in the Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo of Madrid in 1978, is an exact reproduction of the building’s architecture and most of the artworks it housed, such as El pueblo español tiene un camino que conduce a una estrella (There Is a Way for the Spanish People That Leads to a Star, 1937) by Alberto Sánchez, Montserrat (1936-1937) by Julio González, Dama oferente (Woman with Vase, 1933), by Pablo Picasso and Mercury Fountain (1937) by Alexander Calder, this one exhibited in the ground floor in front of the big canvas Guernica.

Carmen Fernández Aparicio

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