Martha Levisman de Clusellas (18 August 1933 – 13 June 2022) was an Argentine architect, archivist, and historian. She was best known for the three buildings of the Antorchas Foundation in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and for the part she played in the development of the National Library in Buenos Aires. In 1985 she completed the first Antorchas building. Writer Roberto Segren notes how in her work on the first Antorchas building transformed a "decayed palace representative of the anonymous architecture of Italian builders of the late nineteenth century" in the

San Telmo San Telmo ("Saint Pedro González Telmo") is the oldest ''Barrios of Buenos Aires, barrio'' (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A well-preserved area of the Argentine metropolis, it hosts some of its oldest buildings. One of the birthplace ...

neighborhood.

Biography

From 1952 to 1958, she studied at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

, together with Beatriz Goldestein, Nely Cueitel and Nora Monreal. It was during the period of transition when some of the staff were teaching the

Beaux Arts style Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporated Renaissance and B ...

while others were beginning to turn to

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, especially César Janello and

Tomás Maldonado Tomás Maldonado (25 April 1922 – 26 November 2018) was an Argentine painter, designer and thinker, considered one of the main theorists of design theory of the legendary Ulm Model, a design philosophy developed during his tenure (1954–1967) ...

who taught integral design. She was also able to benefit from the lectures given by

Odilia Suárez Odilia Suárez (12 November 1923 – 11 August 2006) was an Argentine architect, educator and urban planner. After graduating with the Gold Medal for 1950 from the University of Buenos Aires, she studied at Taliesin West with Frank Lloyd Wright a ...

and Enriqueta Méoli, both bent on following emerging trends. She was on the point of leaving Buenos Aires to embark on further studies in

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

where there was a new school of architecture but she stayed in the capital after meeting

Gerardo Clusellas Gerardo may refer to: People Given name Gerardo is the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian form of the male given name Gerard. * Gerardo Amarilla (born 1969), Uruguayan politician * Gerardo Bonilla (born 1975), Puerto Rican-born professional race c ...

(1929–73) who became her business partner, her husband and the father of her three sons. From 1957, she began her career at the university, working under Janello and with Wladimiro Acosta. From 1963 to 1966, she headed first-year practical projects in

Alfredo Ibarlucía Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. Given name Artists and musicians * Aldo Sambrell (1931–2010), Spanish actor also known as Alfredo San ...

's department. Later she worked with Mario Tempone. With the return of democracy in 1984, she returned to the Faculty of Architecture at Buenos Aires University as lecturer responsible for cultural events until 1989 when she worked for the dean, undertaking research and arranging historical exhibitions. Between 1998 and 2002, Levisman was Director of ARCA, Argentina's architectural archive centre (Asociación Civil para el Archivo de Arquitectura Contemporánea Argentina); she also served as ARCA's president. As an archivist she has worked for the

Bustillo Bustillo may refer to: Places *Bustillo de Chaves, municipality in the province of Valladolid, Spain *Bustillo del Oro, municipality in the province of Zamora, Spain *Bustillo del Páramo de Carrión, place in the province of Palencia, Spain *Bust ...

family. Levisman has conducted research as a historian into architecture, in one instance arguing that the "Bariloche style" was "created by a group of affluent Argentine developers inspired by 'colonization, illusion and fantasy'". As an architect, she was a member of her husband's firm. The most important completed works included the Antorchas Head Office (1985), the TAREA Foundation building (renovated in 1987) and an addition to the Antorchas complex to house a photograph gallery, completed in 1991. In 1989, she was commissioned to complete work on the National Library, a sizeable project which entailed redrafting plans for the interiors which had been mislaid.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Levisman, Martha 1933 births 2022 deaths Argentine women architects Argentine archivists 20th-century Argentine historians University of Buenos Aires alumni Architectural historians Argentine women historians People from Buenos Aires