Antoni Gaudí - God's Architect

My latest travelogue piece for ArtWay concerns Antoni Gaudí and covers visits to the Sagrada Familia and Colonia Güell Crypt:

"Gaudí is the great sculptor who utilises natural form in his work both for utilitarian and aesthetic reasons. He described nature as ‘the Great Book, always open, that we should force ourselves to read’ and, as [Robert] Hughes recognised, thought that ‘everything structural or ornamental that an architect might imagine was already prefigured in natural form, in limestone grottoes or dry bones, in a beetle's shining wing case or the thrust of an ancient olive trunk.’" 

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Duke Special - Why Does Anybody Love?

Colonia Güell and Gaudí's Crypt

The construction of Colonia Güell began in 1890 at the initiative of the entrepreneur Eusebi Güell in his textile estate of Santa Coloma de Cervelló. Construction of the factory began in 1890. A mere year later the first building was completed and the steam machine dedicated to spinning was started. Afterwards, the rest of the buildings, each aimed at drying, tinting, etc in order to complete cotton’s process of transformation. Each of the buildings that made up the factory had a different role in the process of transforming cotton into fabric. A set of rails and cartwheels were installed throughout the factory in order to facilitate the transportation of materials between the aforementioned buildings.

The factory of the Colonia Güell was its central nucleus and raison d’etre. Dedicated to the production of several types of cloths, its main difference with other textile factories of the time was that it used coal in lieu of hydraulic energy.
Industrial colonies where conceived as a socioeconomic organization whose main goal was industrial productivity. The mill took up most of the time of the men and women of the colony, for them it was the guarantee of having a regular income in times of economic scarcity. In contrast to most industrial colonies in Catalonia, Güell worked to improve the social conditions of his workers and applied his cultural patronage in the Colonia, providing it with cultural and religious facilities of a modernist design which were developed by different architects, most notably Antoni Gaudí to whom he entrusted in 1898 the building of the church.

Over the next few years, Gaudí carried out various preliminary studies which culminated in a model which was placed in a pavilion located in the hill were the building would later be erected. The construction of the temple began in 1908. However, the ambitious project which foresaw a church with two naves, lower and upper, topped by different towers and a 40 meters high central dome would remain unfinished. In 1914 the Güell family decided to stop financing the church and Gaudí abandoned the project. In November 1915 the bishop of Barcelona consecrated the lower nave, the only one to have been built, which made the church be popularly known as the crypt.

During the textile crisis of 1973 the mill ceased its production which had a big social impact in the Colonia. Over the next few years, the property was sold; the mill was divided and sold to different companies, the houses to their inhabitants and the facilities and land to the public institutions.
In 1990 the Colonia Güell was declared 'Heritage of Cultural Interest' by the Spanish government and the protection of some of its most relevant buildings was established. The Crypt was declared a  World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005.

Visitors can still walk around the industrial Colonia and visit Gaudí's church, all the while observing beautiful, singular buildings created by modernist architects.

The Crypt of Colònia Güell is a culminating point in Gaudi's work including for the first time practically all of his architectural innovations. He stated that without the large-scale experiments he undertook there, he would not have dared apply those same geometries to the Sagrada Familia. It is the place where, according to Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki, he ‘overcame all established limits regarding shapes.’

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Gungor - Beautiful Things. 

Barcelona views

 

Five days in Barcelona was just what was needed to relax and recharge batteries. Our hotel was just off La Rambla, so close to both Barri Gòtic and Port Vell. We used the tourist buses to get an overview of the city and find our way around while stopping off at some of the Gaudí sites we wished to visit. These included Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, Palau Güell, Park Güell, Plaça Reial and the Sagrada Familia, as well as a day spent visiting Colònia Güell and its Gaudí designed Crypt. We also visited the Cathedral and saw exhibitions at the Diocesan Museum (Goya and his Inheritors. The Follies nowadays) and the Arts Santa Mònica (Pure Views: Transformations of Chinese Contemporary Art).

The Follies was the last important collection engraved by Francisco de Goya between 1819 and 1824. They are among the most difficult of his engravings to interpret, images with nightmarish visions, absurd scenes, personages that are not from this world, hidden obsessions revealed in his old age; mysterious and enigmatic, inscrutable and personal. Taking The Follies as its starting point, this exhibition creates a journey through contemporary art and current engraving linking Goya and 12 of his plates to 21 20th century artists including: José Manuel Broto, Eduardo Arroyo, Günter Grass, Martín Chirino, Luis Feito, Juan Genovés, Manolo Valdés, Luis Caruncho, Andrés Rábago (El Roto), José Beulas, Ricardo Calero, Julio León, Alicia Díaz Rinaldi, Darío Villalba, Luis Gordillo, José Hernández, Rafael Canogar, Jaume Plensa, Víctor Mira, Pascual Blanco and Guinovart.

 

Pure Views. Transformations of Chinese Contemporary Art, curated by Lu Peng, the prestigious Chinese art historian and director of the Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, is an attractive and comprehensive survey of Chinese contemporary art. Back in 1995, under the title From the Country of the Centre. Artistic Avant-gardes in China, this same art centre mounted a seminal display of key, innovative Chinese artworks of the day, one of the first exhibitions of its kind in Europe. Since then, Chinese art has evolved significantly.

 

Pure Views corroborates the developments experienced by Chinese art in the last thirty years. Starting from the final days of Socialist Realism, it charts the trend towards a diversity of techniques and styles, responding to the expectations of a new society that, at the same time, is reflecting profoundly on its tradition. The exhibition includes work by

Cao Jingping, Fang Lijun, He Sen, Hong Lei, Jin Jiangbo, Li Chao, Li Qing, Li Rui, Mao Tongqiang, Mao Xuhui, Na Wei, Qiu Anxiong, Shao Wenhuan, Shen Na, Shi Jinsong, They, Tu Hongtao, Wang Guangyi, Xie Fan, Yang Mian, Yang Qian, Yang Xun, Ye Yongqing, Yue Minjun, Zhan Wang, Zhang Jian, Zhang Peili, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhang Xiaotao, and Zhang Ya, Zhou Chunya.

 

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Pablo Casals - Bach Cello Suite 3 Praeludium.