Chapter Fourteen: The Minds of Gaudí, Picasso, and Mariscal o Tres Artistas de Barcelona

The real highlights of Barcelona for me weren't in seeing the city's history, but in seeing the works and evolution of artists who at one point called Barcelona home.

The Sagrada Familia - "Holy Family"- Cathedral, Gaudí's most famous work, is a cool mix of Gaudí's Catholicism, attention to detail, and love of nature. The Nativity side of the Cathedral, with its numerous religious scenes and ornate arches, is an astounding start to seeing the cathedral, but it's made even more exciting by the spires that stand above the rest of the church. These spires - a conspicuous part of the Barcelona skyline - further separate Gaudí's eccentric design from the more conventional Spanish cathedrals. The museum underneath the cathedral gave more insight into how the cathedral and its intricate aspects were planned by Gaudí, an architect who was involved in pretty much every aspect of the buildings he created. Inside the cathedral, the work is still in progress. Some stained glass, pillars, and ceiling decorations have been put in, but more is to be added before the Cathedral is completed sometime around 2025 (although I have the feeling that this is a schedule that people in 2050 are going to look back and laugh at). The "Stations of the Cross" side features much more austere work and simpler architecture, providing an interesting contrast with the hopeful Nativity side.

Gaudí's other big contribution to Barcelona, the Parque Güell, is a park overlooking the sprawling city. It's a park filled with Alice in Wonderland style designs, a large lizard sculpture, and cave-like structures. Again, Gaudí's love of nature and eccentricity is on display for the flocks of tourists that migrate there and clog the steps at the center of the park. While a lot of people headed back after a quick walk through the park, I decided to stroll around more, further away from the crowds and Gaudí's work. I walked up the hill and found another great view of the city, in a much quieter area, although I'm not sure if it was part of the park itself or if it was a residential neighborhood.

 

 

I'm pretty sure the Parque Güell and the Sagrada Familia are the biggest Gaudí tourist draws, but my favorite piece of his is the Casa de Botlló. When I first passed it, it seemed like an "eccentricity for eccentricity's sake" piece of architecture. What I found inside was something entirely different - a piece of art that is exciting and displays the work of an artist who was truly ahead of his time. As the audioguide reminded me every minute or so, Gaudí's work is both aesthetically and functionally motivated. In the case of the Casa Botlló, located in the seaside town of Barcelona, that meant letting the sea in aesthetically and using the form of the house to let the pleasant weather in. Gaudí included large windows for natural light, vents to bring in outside air, and walls that twist in natural patterns - and almost appear to be the interior of an animal.

Aside from the genius of the Casa Botlló, I was able to explore a little of Gaudí's La Pedrera, which now houses the Caixa Catalunya Obra Social, a free modern arts exhibition space. When I visited the building, the work of the Barcelona (originally from Valencia, apparently, but has been working in Barcelona since the 1970's) artist Mariscal was on display and it offered a fun alternative to the intense and calculated Gaudí works. Apparently starting with experimenting with letter fonts and making his way to creating his own art, Mariscal gained a large audience with his work for the Barcelona 1992 Olympics, creating cute mascot characters. For the rest of his career, he has been working on different whimsical ideas, magazine covers, and fonts. His style is lively and while I guess some could see it as tacky or commercial, it was fun and didn't seem to take itself too seriously.

My final cultural adventure during the Barcelona trip was the Museo Picasso. Entering the Museum, I knew about Picasso's changing styles, but the Museo Picasso really brought them to life. Starting with his early days where he was a perfectly fine impressionist painter (following in the footsteps and using the last name of his father), it illustrates his transition into his "etapa azul," "etapa rosa," cubism, ceramics, and other areas and includes some of his best work. Some of my favorites in the collection are "La Salchichona," some of his early Impressionist miniatures, and his "Las Meninas" series in which he plays with Velázquez's classic. A temporary exhibit of Picasso and Degas paintings were set up, which made it easy to see Degas' influence on Picasso. Placing the two artists' works side by side, the similarity between the subject matter (dancers usually), movement, and positioning of the subjects were evident. So, like a certain Catalonian artist said himself, "good artists copy, great artists steal."

 

On the subject, for legal reasons and what have you, I'd like to note that I did not create or take pictures of the Picasso and Mariscal pictures featured here, just got them off of Google's image search para mostrar ejemplos de lo que dije. The Picasso paintings are some of my favorites and the Mariscal pictures are his Olympic mascot and his font design.