Sóller: Miro, Picasso, Rubió & Can Prunera Museu Modernista

The town of Sóller is located on the northwest coast of the island of Mallorca and has two buildings by the architect Joan Rubió i Bellver.

Rubió was a keen disciple of Antoni Gaudí collaborating with him until 1905 on such works as the restoration of La Seu (the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca). Rubió went to Mallorca to collaborate with Gaudí on the Cathedral but his contacts with the curia provided him with other works on the island. Rector Sebastià Maymó, a good friend of Bishop Campins who commissioned Gaudí to work on the Cathedral, hired Rubió to design the façade for the parish church in Sóller, which had yet to be finished. He designed a traditional Gothic façade, but gave it what could be considered a Modernista interpretation. Work began in 1904 and ended in 1913 because of a lack of funding, and it was not completed until 1946. Rubió also designed the Banc de Sóller (1909-1912), a large grey ashlar building with asymmetrical windows covered by semicircular arches and a double semicircular overhanging corner gallery. The Banco de Sóller is remarkable for its intricate ironwork (wrought iron).

Can Prunera Museu Modernista is located in an old art nouveau mansion built in the early 20th century. Can Prunera, together with other buildings such as the Grand Hotel, Can Forteza Rey and Can Casasayas, the three of them in Palma, belongs to a large set of buildings erected in the early 20th century following the models of Catalan Modernisme and French Art-nouveau.

The visit starts in the ground and main floor rooms, containing some of the original furniture (tables, chairs, beds, wardrobes and showcases with a clear ornamental richness). In those same rooms, paintings and sculptures are shown. Most of the works displayed at Can Prunera Museu Modernista belong to the Serra Art Collection and this collection’s masterpieces encompass works by important artists from the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Joan Miró, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger and Maurice Vlaminck; painters who were either born in Mallorca or have some link to the island and have reached international recognition are also included. These include Santiago Rusiñol, Joaquim Mir, Joan Fuster, Eliseu Meifrén, Ritch Miller and Miquel Barceló. Another important section of the Serra Art Collection is to be found in the paintings of the permanent collection, by Juli Ramis,

In the basement, there are the rooms popularly known as botigues: the old room containing a kitchen stove, an olive oil tank, a sink and a well, which can still be seen; a refectory for the domestic service –which nowadays hosts temporary exhibitions– and the storage rooms –today devoted to Juli Ramis, where works from three of the most characteristic periods of this painter from Sóller are shown: early years, Cubism and abstract works. In the garden, visitors can contemplate the inner façade of the house and the collection of sculptures displayed.

Biblically themed works on show included a bronze by Arnaldo Pomorodo dedicated to Pere A. Serra, an image of the Miracle at Cana by Calvo Carridôn plus a collection of drawings by Josep Maria Subirachs i Sitjar.

There are currently two temporary exhibitions. The Incarnate Spirits by Pep Girbent (Sóller, 1969) presents seven painting based on images from iconic films which introduce several overlapping discourses. The task I have set myself is none other than to untangle these interlocking blocks of thought, out of which, like the tips of icebergs, the seven paintings that comprise this exhibition emerge. The other is Joan Ramon Bonet. The photographer’s vision; in which photographs by Bonet of various artists are shown alongside examples of each artist's work.

The station and ticket office building at Sóller house a permanent exhibition of two of Spain's most famous modern artists, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. Aptly housed together because the two artists enjoyed a long friendship until the death of Picasso in 1973, the collection contains ceramics by Picasso and lithographs and paintings by Miro, as well as several photographs of the pair together. The Miro gallery includes his interpretation of Francesc d'Assis: Càntic del Sol, 1975.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brother Sun, Sister Moon.

Josep Maria Subirachs RIP

The sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs, who has died aged 87, is mainly associated with his controversial sculptures for the Passion Facade of Antoni Gaudí's famous Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona.

The Guardian's obituary states that he "recovered the human figure in the mid-1960s and developed his mature expressionist style of rough-surfaced, sharp-angled and anguished figures, such as can be seen in the Passion Facade" of the Sagrada Familia.

"Not counting the Passion Facade, he has an extraordinary 70 sculptures in Barcelona's public spaces." I saw some of these works last year, including the Monument to Macià (1991) in Barcelona's central square, the Plaça de Catalunya: "The truncated, upside-down staircase suggests the unfinished construction of Catalonia, while the solid chunks of travertine stone express the solidity of the stateless nation's foundations. Tiny writing on the history of Catalonia and on the life of Francesc Macià, the region's first modern president, covers the blocks of stone."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barcelona - Please Don't Go.

Jujol and Subirachs

Josep Maria Jujol developed his unusual architectural style through many years of close, creative collaboration with Antoni Gaudí. He helped create the doors for Casa Batlló as well as the ceramic facade, the ceilings and columns of Casa Milà, as well as the wrought iron banisters, and was responsible for the colourful ceramics decorating the serpentine seats and ceilings of  Park Güell.  Jujol was famous for utilizing waste materials such as broken tiles, plates, bottles, cups, glasses, and jugs when creating mosaics.

Jujol’s work 'is characterized by a high degree of sensibility to the forms of nature, an emphatically anti-geometric aesthetic, attention to workmanship and detail, as well as the imaginative use of old and previously utilized material. It is an eloquent expression of his affection for the Catalonian landscape, his modesty, and deep religious faith.'

Jujol's work was not restricted to collaborations with
Gaudí and an interesting piece Richard Eilers in the Guardian describes visits to some sites associated with Jujol. The monument at the Plaça d'Espanya (see photograph above) is also by Jujol, although not one of his lighter and better works.

 Josep Maria Subirachs is the Catalan sculptor who, in 1986, was commissioned to create the groups of sculptures on the Passion Façade of the Sagrada Família. 'Subirachs dedicated almost twenty years (1987 to 2005) to this group of works, which can be considered the synthesis and culmination of his career as a sculptor, comprising more than one hundred figures sculpted in stone and four bronze doors. To represent the last two days in the life of Jesus Christ, he revisited his figurative expressionism stage in search of the dramatic effect the theme required.'

'The expressionist aspect of Subirachs' works is more formal than conceptual and can be found, above all, in the typically distorted angular bodies and in the treatment of textures, when he incorporates grattage, refraining from leaving surfaces smooth, making them rough, jagged, coarse, in order to accentuate the expressive capacity of the material.' His work on public sculptures has been considered a milestone in the artistic renovation of Spain in the 20th century.

'A multi-faceted artist, Subirachs has not only expressed himself through tridimensional creation, but also by means of other techniques such as painting, drawing, graphic art (etching, drypoint, serigraphy and lithography), tapestry, book illustration, medal minting and designing jewellery and other utilities.' Much work by Subirachs can be found in Barcelona, including the monument to the president of the Catalan Government, Francesc Macià, at the Plaça de Catalunya (see photograph above).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrian Snell - Gethsemene.