Page 161 - Libro Max Cetto

In Cetto’s Proximity

Bettina Cetto

Integration calls for disciplined partners who are ready to emerge from their
own narrow subjective worlds and forfeit their individual mannerisms
and their unique gifts in the interests of a productive dialogue.
Such a method requires constraint and coordination
if it is not to end up in a Babel-like confusion.

Max L. Cetto 1

eciding on what to write about my father was not easy, especially in view of the quality
Dof the invited authors, who joyfully agreed to embark on this task. I feel honored to be
in such good company because, as connoisseurs of Cetto’s ouvre, they deliver views, analyses,
reflections from architecture itself. Mine is necessarily a more anecdotal approach and an
opportunity to leave testimonies as well.

The Journey of a Seed

2
In Susanne Dussel’s work, I came across an observation –which will be made explicit fur-
ther on in this text– regarding the large, gridded windows of the now-famous building for
artists (Barragán + Cetto) located at Melchor Ocampo 38, in Mexico City’s Cuauhtémoc
3
neighborhood, and found in it a guiding thread between the German period of the then-
quite-young architect, his early work in Mexico and his mature work, when he had already
opened his own atelier and was able to sign his projects because he had finally acquired
Mexican nationality.
4
The artists’ building takes us back to the year of Max Cetto’s arrival in Mexico (1939),
when, within a few days, he not only had contacted several architects, but was already wor-
6
5
king with them. During his stay in California, especially at Neutraʼs San Francisco atelier,
he had familiarized himself with the architectural scene in Mexico and, practically upon
arrival in the capital, he was put in charge of overseeing construction of the Mexico City
Children’s Hospital. Cetto discovered local craftsmanship in this first job, which Villagrán
gave him. He had to direct the masons without knowing Spanish and would come home
to unsuccessfully check his dictionary for the words he heard uttered by the foremen. Ac-
7
cording to him, “the salary Villagrán paid me was as meager as you can imagine.” Yet he
was unconcerned about these vicissitudes, because he was amazed by the skill and creativity

1 Max Cetto, Modern Architecture in Mexico/Arquitectura Moderna en México (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc.,
1961), 30.
2 Susanne Dussel Peters, Max Cetto (1903-1980) Arquitecto mexicano-alemán (Mexico City: uam Azcapotzalco, 1995).
3 The guiding thread lies in the proportions of the windows modulated by vertical rectangles for the artists’ building,
which Cetto used in a very early work in Frankfurt and, later on, in several works from his mature period.
4 I highly recommend “Luis Barragán’s Forgotten Works, Revisited” by Suleman Anaya, published in The New York Times
Style Magazine supplement on July 24, 2020.
5 Cetto’s stay in the United States began in New York, from where his zig-zag to the west would take him first to Walter
and Ise Gropius in Lincoln, Massachusetts and, as Humberto Ricalde recounts, “to Richard Neutra and his Californian
houses. Perhaps the most radical undertaking of the European avant-garde in North America, full of Wrightian resonan-
ces, was this time working with Neutra and a visit to Master Wright at the Taliesin shrine.” Humberto Ricalde, Max Cetto:
Vida y obra (Mexico City: Unam, Faculty of Architecture, Col. Talleres, 1995), 14.
6 There is a color perspective drawing by Cetto of the Kahn house (c. 1939), developed at Richard Neutraʼs atelier, avai-
lable in the Archivo Max Cetto, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Azcapotzalco, Mexico City.
7 Lilia Gómez, “Entrevista con el arquitecto Max L. Cetto,” in Testimonios Vivos. 20 arquitectos (Mexico City: Inba-Sep,
1981), 119-120.

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