HOMAGE TO CATALONIA
Skip the galleries next time you’re in Barcelona, some of the world’s greatest art is on view in the street
Peix by Frank Gehry,
installed for the 1992
Olympics
Photo: AlamyText: Alessandra Fusé
Gaudà’s Sagrada Familia, the Ramblas, the Barri Gòtic, the Picasso Museum: these are the top draws for most visitors to Barcelona. But for anyone willing to walk the city’s streets, Barcelona is a treasure trove of public art, an open-air museum — and you don’t have to spend hours queuing.
The streets and squares of the city are full of statues, sculptures and virtuoso architecture by world-famous contemporary artists. Most of the works were commissioned for the 1992 Olympics. The aim was urban regeneration, and the works played a part in transforming the face of the city by reintegrating the built environment with its social fabric.
However, it was about more than that: inspired by the alienation of day-to-day life, the modern-day communication breakdown and sexual experience, the many sculptures are rich in existential symbolism. From pop art to surrealism and architectural modernism, this new artistic direction fuses traditional and more contemporary forms of art.
In the Olympic area itself, next to the Pabellà³n de la II Repàºblica Espaà±ola building, the sculpture Els Mistos, by the Swedish pop art master Claes Oldenburg, welcomes arrivals from its 20-metre height. This multicoloured work of pure skill in steel has a cement base which acts as the foundation for the giant matches which bend above it.
Matchless pop
art: Els Mistos
by Claes
OldenburgAnother example of pop art, La Cabeza de Barcelona (Barcelona Head) by the US painter-sculptor Roy Lichtenstein, whose work was inspired by the language of comic books and advertising, has become the symbol of the new in Barcelona. Nearly 20 metres high and made from eight multicoloured parts, you can find this piece on Paseo Colà³n.
Meanwhile, Spanish surrealism finds its profoundest expression in Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird) by Joan Mirà³, located in the Parc de l’Escorxador. The sculpture is a giant phallic shape covered in ceramic with a black mark to symbolise the female organ, creating a hymn to pure physical love.
However, if you want to fully understand the urban, artistic revolution which transformed Barcelona on the occasion of the Olympics into a showcase of contemporary architectural skill, go to Plaà§a de Europa near the Bernat Picornell Olympic swimming pool and the Palau Sant Jordi sports arena. This square is home to one of the most important installations in contemporary architecture: the Montjuà¯c telecommunication tower by the Valencian architect and engineer, Santiago Calatrava. This huge anthropomorphic sculpture, made from steel and painted white, dominates the city from its 20-metre height.
Barcelona Head by
Roy Lichtenstein,
symbol of this
dynamic, modern
city Anyone who wants to think more deeply about the relationship between philosophy and sculpture will enjoy Una Habitacià³ on Sempre Plou by the Spanish sculptor Juan Muà±oz, in Plaà§a del Mar. The five anthropomorphic, spherical bronze figures sit inside an enclosed area. There is a subtle, enigmatic atmosphere about the sculpture, and although the space is shared between the various elements, it gives the impression of a kind of delicate alienation and lack of communication which is quite Pirandellian.
Another unmissable sight can be found near the harbour beside the Hotel Arts — Peix (Fish), by the Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The statue is located on the seafront and takes the form of an enormous fish which looks as though it’s diving into the sea. Peix was the first work to be designed on a computer, and Gehry used the “skin in” technique which starts by creating the external form then defining the structure beneath.
David i Goliat by
Antoni LlenaThe harbour area also contains the work David i Goliat (20 metres) by Antoni Llena. The statue was initially on show in 1991 at the Joan Prats gallery, but can now be found in the middle of the Villa Olàmpica (Olympic village). Made from stainless steel and aluminium tubes and a huge, perforated grey sheet 120 metres square, vaguely reminiscent of a face, David i Goliat is a real monument to air art.
But no matter what else, the city of Barcelona could not fail to produce a work in honour of the ultimate Catalan artist, Pablo Picasso. Homenatge a Picasso by Antoni Tà¡pies was commissioned in 1981, the centenary of Picasso’s birth. It is an imposing 64-metre-square 10-cubic-metre crystal cube with a constant flow of water running over it, giving the sculpture strength and vitality.
Dona y Ocell by
Joan Mirà³Admiring these works is a visual and aesthetic experience of the purest kind. But as well as that, the richness of colour, the grandeur, the daring and the originality of the materials used in all the artistic creations come together to express a single message; the dynamism and innovative momentum with which Barcelona and Catalonia as a whole have made their mark on the world over the past 20 years.
EXCURSIONS
Art beyond the city limits
The Dalà Theatre-Museum, Figueres (one hour north of Barcelona)
Opened in 1974 within the walls of an old theatre, Dalà arranged his works himself. “The ignorant won’t understand my art no matter how I arrange it, while people who know my work will appreciate it even in chaos,” he told visitors.
Monastery of Montserrat (30 mins west)
Perched high on a mountain top and accessible only by a funicular railway, the Monastery of Montserrat also has an impressive gallery, housing works by Caravaggio, Monet, Picasso, Dalà and Mirà³. There is also an interesting collection of Egyptian archaeological finds, including a mummy dating back to 2000 BC.