1928-2022

As so many architects of all times, José Frutos Vivas could not resist the spell of power, and in 2103 he designed a mausoleum for the recently deceased president of his country, which he gave a name between tropical and classic: La Flor de los Cuatro Elementos (the flower of the four elements). This loa to Chávez, between formalist and folkloric, inevitably placed Fruto Vivas in an uncomfortable position, but he continued to be respected by the Venezuelan opposition and, critical appraisals never failed to acknowledge the importance of his work. Without Fruto Vivas it wouldn’t be possible to understand Venezuelan architecture of the last sixty years: trained during the best times of Latin American modernity, Vivas’s career took off in the booming Caracas of Pérez Jiménez, and he collaborated with masters like Oscar Niemeyer in the unexecuted Museum of Modern Art and with Eduardo Torroja in the Club Táchira, his best work, before embarking on a long journey that led him to the Pavilion of Venezuela at Expo Hannover 2000 and to the mentioned Mausoleum of Hugo Chávez, two works with which he attempted to invoke an improbable technological and friendly tropicalism.