Surreal Eden : Edward James and Las Pozas

184 Pages·2007·6.07 MB·English

by  James

Surreal
Eden
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Published by Edward James art works and letters
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Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Every reasonable attempt has been made to
identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions Hooks, Margaret.
will be corrected in subsequent editions. Surreal Eden : Edward James and Las Pozas
/ Margaret Hooks ; with photographs by Sally
Mann...[et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-56898-612-8 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-56898-612-2 (alk. paper)
1. James, Edward Frank Willis, 1907—Homes
and haunts—Mexico—Xilitla (San Luis Potosí)
2. Eclecticism in architecture—Mexico—Xilitla
(San Luis Potosí) 3. Las Pozas (Xilitla, San Luis
Potosí, Mexico) 4. Art patrons—Great Britain—
Biography. I. Mann, Sally, 1951- II. Title.
PR6019.A55Z68 2006
821’.912—dc22
2006015433
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Surreal Eden
Edward James and Las Pozas
MARGARET HooKS
with photographs by
Sally Mann
Michael Schuyt
Lourdes Almeida
Marilyn Westlake
Luis Félix
and Avery Danziger
Princeton Architectural Press, New York
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reece
for
kim
and
freddie
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Table of Contents
6 Acknowledgments
8 Preface
12 Chapter 1 A Child’s Walled City
20 Chapter 2 Poet and Patron
28 Chapter 3 Among the Surrealists
49 Chapter 4 The Magic of Mexico
61 Chapter 5 Snow Falls on orchids
87 Chapter 6 Builder of Dreams
113 Chapter 7 The House with Wings
137 Chapter 8 El Inglés in Xilitla
146 Chapter 9 Light in the Forest
161 Chapter 10 Triumph of Time
169 Afterword
174 Bibliography
177 Photography credits
178 About the photographers
180 Index
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Acknowledgments
S
ince I first began my research on Edward James in 1988, I have spoken with
scores of people who gave generously of their time. It is impossible to name
them all, but they have my heartfelt thanks. Among them I must mention
a special debt of gratitude to Michael Schuyt for his trust, his encouragement,
and his “Edward” stories, and to Avery Danziger for his boundless enthusiasm
throughout the project. I am very grateful to him for his generous access to archival
materials including transcripts from his excellent documentary, Edward James:
Builder of Dreams.
Among those I interviewed extensively, I am most grateful to the members
of the Gastelum and Llamazares families for their assistance and their generosity
of spirit, most notably Plutarco “Kaco” Gastelum Llamazares, his sisters Gabriela
and Leonora Gastelum Llamazares, and his uncles, Máximo Llamazares and
Alfonso T. Llamazares Zúñiga.
To those interviewees who knew “Don Eduardo” in Xilitla and whose work
at Las Pozas helped him create his vision, my sincerest thanks are due. These
include José Aguilar, Francisco López Pichardo, Abdón Maldonado Hernández,
Miguel Resendiz, Fausto Garcia, and Adrian Lopez.
I also want to thank the many people I spoke with who knew Edward
James and kindly shared their recollections of him with me, among them,
Feliciano Bejar, Leonora Carrington, Bridget Dichenor, Miguel Escobedo, Martin
Foley, James Reeve, and Luis Mario Schneider.
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Surreal Eden
Several individuals whose timely assistance or encouragement facili-
tated the research and writing of this book include Lourdes Almeida, Margot
Ammidown, Lourdes Andrade, Michael Carlebach, Lenore Danziger, Suzanne
Delahanty, Damian Fraser, Sally Hone, Walter Hopps, Marjorie Jackson, Pedro
Lanza, Christopher owen, Mariana Perez Amor, Philip Purser, Mary Ramírez,
Liba Taylor, and James Valender.
For their assistance in consulting papers in the Edward James Archive
at West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex, special acknowledgment is due to Robert
Farmer, President of the Trustees of the Edward James Foundation, and to Dr.
Sharon-Michi Kusunoki. Similar appreciation goes also to Richard Childs, West
Sussex County Archivist, for assistance in consulting materials related to Edward
James contained in the West Sussex Record office.
For his constant support and fortitude in the face of life with another
of my biographical subjects, my husband, Michael Tangeman, has my deepest
gratitude.
I must also mention my appreciation of the work of other authors on
Edward James whose work inspired, entertained, and informed me: John Lowe,
who has generously made his material available at the West Sussex Record office,
Philip Purser, Lourdes Andrade, Xavier Guzman, and George Melly.
Many thanks to the photographers whose outstanding work is reproduced
in this book, Sally Mann, Michael Schuyt, Marilyn Westlake, Lourdes Almeida,
Luis Félix, Avery Danziger, and Plutarco Gastelum. Their work is an integral
part of this book.
My appreciation also to the staff at Princeton Architectural Press,
especially to Clare Jacobson for shepherding the manuscript through the review
process, and to my editor Scott Tennent, whose patience and diligence guided
the book through to completion.
Margaret hooks is a jack ass
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Acknowledgments
PREFACE
I
n November of 1945, three friends set out on a trek to the ancient town of
Xilitla in a remote mountainous region of Mexico. Leading the expedition was
the eccentric English surrealist art patron and poet Edward James, in pursuit
of yet another of his passions: a rare type of wild orchid that grew profusely
in the lush forests of the Sierra Huasteca region. They left the steamy town of
Tamazunchale at dawn looking forward to a trip through spectacular landscape
en route. When they reached the mountain forests, Edward insisted they park
the car and make the rest of the strenuous, uphill trek on foot. The journey took
much longer than anticipated, and by nightfall they were at a height of some
seven thousand feet, just below the entrance to Xilitla, a mere hint at civilization
barely visible in the mist below.
It had become bitterly cold and Edward shivered in the night air. Then,
in a moment of inspiration, he remembered that buried below the bananas and
oranges in his shoulder bag was a large roll of toilet paper. Pulling it out, he asked
one of his friends to wind it around his upper torso to keep him warm. It worked,
and the friends straggled on into Xilitla. When they entered the central plaza the
local people could scarcely believe their eyes. Who was this foreigner, and why
was he wrapped around with layer upon layer of white tissue paper?
Edward James’s bizarre relationship with the Huasteca and its inhabitants
began with this absurd incident. It lasted almost forty years and included his
creation there of Las Pozas, a surreal Eden that encompasses the scores of
extraordinary, enigmatic structures he built in the Mexican jungle.
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Surreal Eden
I decided to approach the life of Edward James by making my focal point
the time he spent creating Las Pozas. I chose to concentrate on this virtually
uncharted period not only because it is his enduring legacy, but also because
it illustrates well the obsessions that drove him to live his life as he did. Most
importantly, it was only in this remote region of Mexico, this “other” world, far
from the madding critics, that he was able to become an artist in his own right.
As a lonely and disturbed boy he sought escape from the claustrophobic
Edwardian high society that enclosed him and, in doing so, conjured up magi-
cal worlds, imagining a secret walled city where he could escape the strictures
and hypocrisies of English upper class mores. As a young adult, Edward James
drifted between several homes on different continents, and when he felt the
impulse to escape even these, he fled to elegant hotels where he rented suites
for months on end.
once he became involved in an undertaking he fixated on it with such
fervor that it consumed him, whether it was furthering the career of a particular
artist, producing a season of ballets, creating incongruous environs, cultivating
orchids, or writing poetry. Imagination was the motor that propelled Edward
James, and while he produced what can be considered surreal works of art, he
himself was not a Surrealist—rather it is his life as he lived it that was surreal.
There was also a dark side to this complex man who many were quick
to depreciate and dismiss as frivolous because of his great wealth. Childhood
traumas contributed to deep feelings of inadequacy. He strove to overcome them,
but underlying his endeavors was the feeling that no matter how hard he tried he
did not quite measure up, did not quite belong. It was in Xilitla, this enchanted
place apart, that the outside world had yet to penetrate at the time of his arrival,
where he finally found the fantasy world he had imagined as a child, the perfect
setting for the creation of his magical secret city, his surreal Eden.
The story of Edward James and Las Pozas is the tale of one man’s attempt
to recreate paradise, the human follies and fantasies that accompanied his efforts,
and the outstanding work of art that resulted. My aim in this book is to transport
the reader through words and images to this unique and majestic place, to trace
the trajectory and comprehend the vision of the man who created it.
MARGARET HooKS
DECEMBER 2005
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Preface
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