“Coqueta, vivaz, risueña, como una piba porteña”

Images of Corrientes Street. 1920-1937

Abstract

The literary and artistic representations of the urban landscape allow us to understand the process of the cities’ imaginary conformation; and more specifically the relationship between artists and the city itsef. In the 1920´ s and 30´ s, the debates about Buenos Aires modernization produced drastic changes in the city´ s appearance, which originated numerous reactions. Diverse images of the modern city will then appear, supported by a motifs repertoire which will have its synthesis with the Obelisco inauguration in 1937. In this context, the images produced in this period about Corrientes street can be understood as an example of many artist´s interest on translating the consequences of the city´s growth. Nevertheless, and despite its effective material changes, there is an image of this centric Buenos Aires´ street that persists through time; known as “the street that never sleeps”, which became a symbol of the cosmopolitan Buenos Aires of the first decades of the twentieth century.