Doctoral candidate in Art History Cristóbal Andrés Jácome has been awarded one of four prestigious Getty Research Institute fellowships for 2018-2019. Each year, the Getty Research Institute (GRI) invites scholars from all over the world to Los Angeles to pursue research projects related to the year’s theme. The scholar theme for 2018-2019 is “Monumentality,” which refers “to the way that both monuments and the monumental address fundamental questions of art and architectural history such as size and scale.”
Jácome will pursue his research project, based on his ongoing dissertation titled “Constructing Mexican Monumentality: Architecture in El Pedregal (1940–1952),” beginning in September. His project focuses on the mammoth works built during the “Mexican Miracle” era at El Pedregal, a 1,250-acre lava sea located in south Mexico City, where architects as well as painter Diego Rivera attempted to forge a new notion of national space by constructing new, massive, and pre-Columbian-inspired modern buildings over this ancient volcanic territory. Jácome’s research will focus on a few constructions built in El Pedregal, namely Diego Rivera’s Archeological Museum “Anahuacalli” (1940-1964), Luis Barragán’s Jardines del Pedregal residential elite subdivision (1948-1952), and the University City mammoth project (1952). By studying the architectural works, Jácome intends to devise a framework to study the reenactment of the Mexican past, monumentality, national identity, and the politics of patrimony.