Product Description

"A revolution of forms is a revolution of essentials." --José Martí, Cuban intellectual and independence leader

Although the current surge of interest in Cuba has extended to that country's architecture, few know that the most outstanding architectural achievement of the Cuban Revolution stands neglected just outside Havana.

The Escuelas Nacionales de Arte (National Art Schools), constructed from 1961 to 1965, were the result of an educational program initiated by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara soon after the Revolution of 1959. The architects they commissioned created an organic complex of brick and terra-cotta Catalan vaulted structures that reflected the optimism and exuberance of the period. The schools attempted to reinvent architecture, just as the Revolution hoped to reinvent society.

However, even before construction was completed, the schools fell out of official favor and were subjected to an attack that resulted in their subsequent "disappearance." An ideological campaign branded them politically incorrect, a bourgeois luxury that was not in keeping with the Revolution. The buildings fell into disuse and, abandoned to the jungle, were literally overgrown. Now, almost 40 years later, Cuba is beginning to recognize and reclaim these significant works of architecture.

Revolution of Forms investigates the history and politics surrounding the creation of these structures as well as their subsequent abandonment. The text is accompanied by archival photographs, plans, and images of the present condition of these structures.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1109496 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 220 pages

Review
Cuba's National Art Schools, commissioned in 1961 by Fidel Castro and Che Guevera, are striking architectural examples of the Revolution's early idealistic promise-and its later Sovietized ossification. The sensuous buildings were disavowed as bourgeois in 1965, and abandoned to the jungle. Interest in the schools has revived in recent years, through, and efforts to rehabilitate them are underway. -- In These Times

Loomis poignantly charts the fledgling Revolution's attempt at a fresh definition of Cubanidad and its suffocation by Soviety centralization...Rigorously researched, elegantly written, and sensitively illustrated, the book is imbued, through the beauty and strangeness of its story, with the flavour of a magic realist novel. -- Juliet Barclay, The Architectural Review, April 1999

Review
Loomis poignantly charts the fledgling Revolution's attempt at a fresh definition of Cubanidad and its suffocation by Soviety centralization...Rigorously researched, elegantly written, and sensitively illustrated, the book is imbued, through the beauty and strangeness of its story, with the flavour of a magic realist novel. Juliet Barclay, The Architectural Review

About the Author
John A. Loomis is an associate professor of architecture at the City College of New York. He has written for Design Book Review, Progressive Architecture, Places, and Oculus.

Customer Reviews

An intensely emotional story of passion against bureaucracy
If you are willing to tackle a superbly written book on the architecture of these buildings, you will find that the real art in this book is Loomis' telling of the intensely human story of the people who created them. Through the many details of Loomis' excellent research, the reader becomes part of the early days of post-revolutionary Cuba; first feeling the inspiration of the creation of these uniquely beautiful buildings and then the despair at their inevitable fall from grace. Not incidentally, the book also is an excellent reference on bureaucratic destruction (more powerful than a wrecking ball...)

If John had only given a little more information on how the Catalan arch can be constructed without scaffolding, the book would have been perfect.

I'm now considering reading "Ay, Cuba! : A Socio-Erotic Journey" (by Andrei Codrescu) as a chaser, but contrast of styles could cause permanent neural fracturing...

Las Escuelas de Artes: obra emblematica.
La tarde del 3 enero de 1961, Fidel y el Che jugaron una partida de golf en el exclusivo Country Club de La Habana. El hecho hubiera sido irrelevante si no es porque, conmovidos por el esplendoroso paisaje y el bien cuidado campo y euforicos por la campana de alfabetizacion que habian iniciado dos dias antes, a los dirigentes se les ocurrio la idea de que en ese mismo lugar se deberia construir unas escuelas internacionales de artes, calificadas luego por Fidel como "La mas hermosa academia de artes de todo el mundo" (Noticias de Hoy, 4 mayo 1963). El propio Fidel escogio al arquitecto Ricardo Porro y fue Selma Diaz quien le llevo la encomienda. La historia la recoge John A. Loomis en su polemico libro "Revolution of Forms: Cuba's Forgotten Art Schools".

Treinta y ocho anos despues de esa partida, las Escuelas de Artes de Porro, Gottardi y Garatti siguen siendo objeto de grandes polemicas. Loomis, en su apologia las reivindica como la obra emblematica de la revolucion cubana. Arquitectura Cuba dedica su numero 377 a Ricardo Porro y sus escuelas de Artes Plasticas y de Danza Moderna y el numero siguiente (378) a Roberto Gottardi y su Escuela de Arte Dramatico.

La polemica sigue abierta.

Informative and well researched
I think that John A. Loomis was very through in his research of Cuba's forgotten Art Schools. He put a lot of time and work into making this book as informative and educational as possible. The comparisons of the art schools in the 60's to how they are today is remarkable. He shows how over time the once beautiful and rapidly developing Cuba has been forgotten and now is quickly deteriorating and losing it's beauty. I think that John A. Loomis wrote this book with a lot of knowledge and understanding of Cuba and it's art schools.