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Clorindo Testa is acknowledged as one of the most prominent Latin American architects of the 20th Century, and a notable artist. Born in Naples, Italy, in 1923, he lived in Argentina since the age of five months. Trained at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Buenos Aires between 1942 and 1947, he was an outstanding student, who discovered modernity in architecture at early stage, and adopted French architect Le Corbusier as a reference and professional model. In 1949, he traveled to Europe with a scholarship. He returned three years later, and from this point, he developed a career in architecture and in painting simultaneously.
During the 1950s and 1960s, he won several architectural competitions, and engaged in major public projects. In those years, his plastic work, before more linked to figurativism, started turning into abstraction, taking a decidedly informalist character, while achieving several awards in important art contests.
The sixties marked a period of major architectural accomplishments. In 1960, associated with Santiago Sanchez Elia, Federico Peralta Ramos and Alfredo Agostini (Studio SEPRA), he won the competition for what became one of the most emblematic buildings of the modern architecture in Argentina: the headquarters of the Bank of London and South America (today, Hipotecario Bank), in the heart of Buenos Aires' financial district. Inaugurated in 1966, the building is located between two narrow streets, surrounded by neoclassical buildings. Following the proportions and scale of these nearby constructions, Clorindo designed an immense concrete structure, supported by two party walls shaping a monumental entrance. The sidewalk space penetrates into the interior, forming a sort of covered plaza, with glass walls reflecting the surrounding buildings.
This area acts like a transitional, dialogic space, between the city and the internal transparent box where the bank functions. Inside, the spatial organization generates a dynamic and suggestive experience: six levels of offices, two anchored on pedestals and free standing, and four suspended from the roof, appearing to float in mid-air. All of the details (light switches, handrails, furniture and finishes) were designed by the architects to fit harmonically with the mass of the rough-hewn concrete structure. This building, along with the one designed by him for the National Library (1962), are marked as main examples of the architectural movement called Brutalism, characterized by the evidence of materials and structures, the expressive use of concrete and the integration of spaces.
The start of the 1970s marks new directions in Testa's production in both disciplines, that will continue in the next decade. His architectural projects took on a plastic conception, closer to the first postmodernism. His artistic works moved to a conceptual-narrative style, with the city and his own biography as recurring themes. As well, he was increasingly oriented to work with Latin American issues, in tune with the developments that were taking place at the continent's artistic conceptualisms. The works from the late 1990s and 2000s function as a sort of anthology, with the artist recapitulating his earlier route: new works trace links to previous ones; drawings, sketches and photos serve as guides.
Clorindo passed away in Buenos Aires in April 2013. At his 89 years, he was still working daily at his studio. His work, a foundation stone for modernism, and his understanding of the relation between architecture and art, have made of him one of the brightest figures of the past century in Argentina.