At the Frankfurt DAM, Spain concludes an ambitious survey of modern European architecture

Of the twentieth-century architecture exhibition series which started in 1995, Spain is the ninth, and last, European country to come under the Deutsches Architektur Museum's magnifying glass. It is the last exhibition organized by the previous director Wilf Wang and it appears under the reign of new curator Ingeborg Flagge. Given the Frankfurt museum's straitened circumstances, an exhibition of this quality would not even have been possible without the support of the Sociedad Estatal Hanover 2000, who oversee Spain's foreign cultural programme. The sheer variety of images in the 150 projects, chosen from a possible 450 that were documented and available, makes this a concentrated survey of architecture within national boundaries. Consisting of photographs, original drawings, models, and a selection of furniture by Gaudi, Oscar Tusquets, Javier Mariscal and Alvaro Soto, the twelve sections displayed over four floors guide the visitor through the history of a country which experienced every political movement on offer in the twentieth century; monarchy, fascism, democracy, with a civil war and separatist movements thrown in.

The many 'isms' -- Modernism versus Classicism, realism versus historical revival, and Functionalism versus form -- reflect the politicization of architectural thought, most noticeably in the two largest conurbations of Madrid and Barcelona. Types of projects available to architects also charted a switchback ride of changes; from futuristic Modernism for the few by Josep Lluis Sert in his Barcelona maisonettes (1931) and Jose Maria Aizpurua andJoaquin Labayen's San Sebastian Sailing Club (1929), through to Francisco Cabrero and Rafael de Aburto's Trade Union Headquarters (1949), thought to be the best government architecture built under Franco, and social housing for gypsies by Cesar Portela and Pascuala Campos (1972). Last but not least, the renaissance of contemporary Spanish architecture in the last quarter of the twentieth century cannot be reviewed without considering the contribution of returned exiles. Ricardo Bofill and Santiago Calatrava are just two of the many who studied and remained abroad, unti l after the Franco era.

Spain is large, hot and raw, with big skies. In the countryside, buildings stand alone against burnt and endless horizons, out of human context. Early hard edge Modernism looked even more brutal in this environment. Today's flowing, sometimes filigree, interpretations, by Rafael Moneo and Juan Navarro Baldeweg, or Frank Gehry in Bilbao and Norman Foster in Barcelona, have added generosity and elegance in opposition to the late Franco's marching rhythms of dark repetitive blocks. A carved quality in many of the great concrete buildings is emphasized by strong sun which makes surfaces glare and shadowed openings even blacker, as in Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz' Light Athletics Stadium (1994), a landmark feature of punctured and tilted concrete surfaces near Madrid's airport. Gaudi's legacy, plasticity of form, can still be seen in architecture like that of Andres Perea, Jose Maria Palao and Julian Franco Lopez' Santa Teresa church (1991), where the roof is a landscape of curved and terraced hills.

Architectural milestones in the last 50 years were Spain's pavilion at Brussels 1958 Expo by Jose Antonio Corrales and Ramon Vazquez Molezun, marking the triumph of Modernism over Classicism as the official state architecture, and after Franco's death, the Seville Expo and Barcelona Olympic events, when the Spanish celebrated both their return to the international stage and displayed their regional variety. Shown for the first time in Frankfurt, the exhibition is planned, like many of the previous nine, to appear at other venues around the world.

20th Century Architecture: Spain at Deutsches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt am Main, until 31 December 2000. Catalogue published by Prestel Verlag, Munich.

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