Museum and city art

Besides the stamp Gaudi left on Barcelona, other artists have also been important to this city whether for their Catalan origin or for their love of the magnificent atmosphere of the exhibitions of art to be found in Barcelona. This can be seen in different museums, statues, and buildings scattered throughout the city.

This is the case of the previously mentioned Picasso Museum in Montcada street., which occupies the Berenguer de Aguilar and Baro de Castellet palaces.
In principle, the donation of Jaume Sabartes was the basis for the creation of this museum but the contribution, by the Town Hall of a large number of Picasso’s works, previously kept in the Museu d’Art Modern de Barcelona, was important to the opening of the Museum. This was later enlarged creating an example of the works of Picasso unique in the world.

The different halls where the paintings are exhibited together with the historical value of the building are an authentic artistic jewel for the city. Among the works exhibited we find El Arlequin, the oil painting Science and The ill child, this last belonging to the “blue period” of which there are several paintings in the Museum.
Another visit no less interesting is to the Fundacio Joan Miro, Centre d’Estudis d’Art Contemporani.

On Montjuic mountain, near Miramar. When opened this foundation exhibited a collection of Miro’s drawings from the period between 1901 and 1975. Later in 1978, this museum was recognized the world over as a ”Fundacion ejemplar” by the European Council. Some of Miro’s most beautiful works can be seen here. The work of this artist can be seen in other parts of the city too, for example, in the Prat airport, where there is a large mural by Miro.

One of his most peculiar works can be seen in the Placa del Escorxador. A monolith called “La Dona Il l’ocell” deals with a symbiosis of harmonic and colorful symbols, using tiles by Lorens-Artigas. Joan Miro, who was born in Barcelona in 1883. Exhibited for the first time in 1918 and afterward moved to Paris, where he first connected with the cubist movement. He soon left this tendency to develop his own particular style, nearer to surrealism, but without a doubt, his own style, both for the lines and coloring found in his works.

Continuing with the contribution Miro made to “street” art we have the mosaic in the Pla de la Boqueria in Les Rambles. Another Catalan artist, Antoni Tapies, whose work is always controversial, corresponds to the surrealist artists who still paint. We can see his work in a foundation very much in style with his work. The Fundacio Tapies is in Arago street, between Rambla de Catalunya and Passeig de Gracia. On top is a strange wiry sculpture called by the artist, “La Cadira” ( the chair ), but a good imagination is necessary to discover where this chair is.

At the foot of Tibidabo, we find the Museu de la Ciencia, dedicated to science and its progress. It is a living Museum where there are continual innovating exhibitions in the field of engineering and technique. Contrary to the other art museums, in this one, it is “forbidden not to touch”, as the exhibitions are eminently functional, and the visitor is expected to activate the inventions and experiment with the new formulas of movement, energy, etc.

Other artistic demonstrations in Barcelona are the buildings. The growth of “Modernism” found fertile ground in this city, and if Gaudi concluded the most original modernist works, Barcelona is full of buildings, public but above all private, of great architectonic value. Among those to be mentioned in the House of “les Puntxes” in Diagonal avenue, the work of the architect Puig I Cadafalch, and in general, the diverse works left by Francesc Berenguer, Luis Domenech I Montaner, Joan Rubio I Bellver, and other architects, thanks to whom, Barcelona acquires a different air to other cities in the Peninsula. The Casa de “Les Puntxes” by Puig Cadafalch, in Diagonal on the corner of Rosello street, was built at the beginning of the century and combines, in good taste, the original restyling of Gothic with the Modernistic tendencies of the time.

Not far away, in the same Diagonal, next to Passeig de Gracia, we find another original building, the Palau Robert, a magnificent example of urban architecture. It is in a rather French style, built between 1901-1902 by the architect Joan Martorell.