A word from Gaudí
...
“Forms expressed with simplicity have more splendour. The multiplication of moulds
unavoidably complicates the ornamental motifs.”
Antoni Gaudí
Issue 27, April-May 2004
14.025 items
SUMARRY
- HIGHLIGHTS:
- NEW ITEMS ON THE WEBSITE: NEW ARTICLES
- GAUDINIAN NEWS
- OUR MEMBERS’ CONTRIBUTIONS
- WHAT’S UP IN THE GAUDÍ FORUM
- VISIT OUR ONLINE SHOP
- 7. BOOKS FOR YOUR LIBRARY:
- GAUDÍ, TODAY:
- BARCELONA’S HEARTBEAT:
- CENTENARY DALÍ 2004
- GAUDI TOURS – TRAVEL WITH US
- LINKS OF INTEREST
- MILESTONES
- CURIOSITIES
- SIMBOLOGY OF THE SAGRADA FAMILIA
- BECOME A PAYING MEMBER
- ERRATA
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1. HIGHLIGHTS
- II GAUDÍ PRIZE OF POETRY AND SHORT NARRATIVE 2004
Thanks to all those who have participated in the second
edition of this literary contest, the participation has increased by 40% compared to last
year. We can therefore confirm that the contest is valid.
We’d like to remind that the works’ judgement
has been hold on 19th Wednesday May in the “Círculo del Liceo”. Its
entrance is situated in the foyer of the “Teatre del Liceu”, Ramblas, 65.
The team of the Gaudí & Barcelona Club would
also like to express its gratitude for the collaboration of the gaudinists who make up
the jury this year:
- Joan-Jordi Bergós, delegate president of the Sagrada Familia
Temple Building Committee
- Joaquim Calvo, president of the “Círculo del Liceo”
of Barcelona
- Joan Bassegoda, conservator of the Reial Cátedral Gaudí
- Josep M. Garrut, director of the Guell Park Museum
- Teresa Martínez, member of the Sagrada Familia Temple Building
Committee
- Fabià Matas, administrator of the Sagrada Familia Temple Building
Committee
- Ana María Férrin, journalist and biographer of Antoni
Gaudí
- Juan Francisco Jiménez, poet and deputy director of the magazine
“Lateral”
- Juan Miguel Muñoz Corbalán, professor at the Department
of History of Art of the University of Barcelona
- Eduard Solé, president of the Gaudí & Barcelona
Club
2. NEW ITEMS ON THE WEBSITE: NEW
ARTICLES
3. GAUDINIAN NEWS
- INTRODUCTION TO THE “GIANT
JUJOL” (EL GEGANT DE JUJOL)
Can Negre |
Last March 21th, the “Giant Jujol”
and the Giant “La Creació” were introduced in Sant Joan Despí.
The first one represents the modernist architect Josep M. Jujol, excellent collaborator
of Gaudí, who was city architect and designed several buildings in this
town. “La Creació” symbolises Can Negre, the most important
work in Sant Joan Despí. |
Giant Gaudí |
The giant of “Gaudí de Riudoms”
and the “Pomereta of Sant Joan Despí” were the protectors
of the new couple. The baptism counted with the participation of 17 groups of
giant pairs which came from other parts of Catalonia. |
Giants Jujol and Creació
|
Toni Mujals, the creator of these giants, is the one who also
designed the Giant of “Gaudí de Riudoms” and the giants of
the Pedrera of Barcelona.
“Giant Jujol” is 3.60 m high and
weighs 43 Kg. “Creació”, which is the same height, watches
her waistline better and weighs no more than 39 Kg. Her dress represents the
work of Jujol: on her head shines a diadem that reproduces the trencadís
mosaic of the roofing material of the Can Negre Tribune. Her hair is tied up,
forming a rosette made of trencadís mosaic; the embroidery of the low
neckline represents the ornaments of the façade; in her dress we recognize
the silhouette of the main façade; and at the waist she wears an adornment
that reminds the staining techniques. |
One of the most emblematic traditions
of the “Fiestas Mayores” is the “giants’ ball”
(baile de gigantes). Most of the councils have their own pair of giants that
on certain days walk around the streets accompanied by the “capgrossos”
– “cabezudos” (carnival characters with big cartoon heads)
bringing show, joy, music and colour to the party. |
- THE GUITAR AND ROMANESQUE ART FESTIVAL
 |
On May 6th, our partner and collaborator,
the prestigious guitar player Manuel González, inaugurated the IV “Guitar
and Romanesque Art” festival, which will take place in Barcelona each
Thursday from May until September 2004. If you have the opportunity to go and
listen to his music, don’t’ miss it: it’s worth it.
All members of our Club will benefit from a discount on the
purchase of the entrance tickets.
Two tickets for the price of one!
Offer only valid at ticket desk.
More information:
www.manuel-gonzalez.com |
-
GAUDICLUB IN CHICAGO
Last April, Eduard Solé, president of the Gaudí & Barcelona Club
and the in Modernism specialised photographer Gaudí Jaume Mestres were invited
by the company Capizzi to attend the KITCHEN / BATH INDUSTRY SHOW & CONFERENCE
OF CHICAGO.
More
information
4. OUR MEMBERS’ CONTRIBUTIONS
- Concepció Moya Sales - a great bobbin lace artist sends
us this gaudinian
doll
- Mari Carmen Vas González - discovered Barcelona and Gaudí’s
works
- Robel Perea - shares his fascination
for Gaudí with us
The Gaudí Club team, in its own name and that of its members, heartily
congratulates Eduard Solé, president of our Association, on his birthday on May
10th.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU...!!
5. WHAT’S UP IN THE GAUDÍ
FORUM
Becca, also in the English forum, wonders about Gaudí’s
religiosity and paganism.
Next, Gon worries about the relationship between Gaudí and the
hyperbolic geometry. Can you make it easier for him?
Nona asks for help to develop an essay about the impact
of Gaudí’s work on today’s architects. Parallel to the Spanish forum
Goya and Alberto mention us the influences that Calatrava acquires from Gaudí.
In the debate “Hospital de Sant Pau”, Gaudiana
y Tamar chat about Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The architects
indeed had different points of view and didn’t understand each other. Have you got
more information about the relationship between both architects? Please send it to us
at news@gaudiclub.com and we will include it in
our next article about these two architecture exponents.
Traductora wants to know who is represented by the sculpture
of the Sagrada Familia with its feet in a sphere... Luis Gueilburt answers her question
adding some very interesting facts.
In the debate “Iconographic detail of the Nativity”, Dulce
brings up a question about a scene of the Temple. Can you answer her?
You can consult all these debates and more on our forums:
Forum in English
Forum in Spanish
6. GAUDINIAN PRESENTS
 |
To Gaudi, every detail was a world of suggestions, an exaltation
of beauty, an evocation of something superior. In this same spirit our artists have
polished, according to traditional methods, some beautiful guaranteed silver jewels
that twinkle on your skin. |
 |
Decorate your desk with the new guaranteed silver Dragon Card
Holder, hand-polished according to traditional methods. Collection piece in the
exclusive design of the Gaudí & Barcelona Club, which recuperates the
practical and noble tradition of the antique modernistic writing desks.
|
 |
Seizing the opportunity of the inauguration of the Universal Forum
of Cultures, our online shop is incorporating new articles in line with the philosophy
of this cultural event. All these products offer the guarantee that they have been
made in fair working conditions and with ecologic and recyclable materials. Umbrella’s,
cups, pencils and fans are some of the gifts we present to you.
|
- WE ARE ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE BARCELONA MEETING
TOTAL
 We
have become full members of the Barcelona Meeting Total Convention Bureau, a programme
of the agency of Touristic Promotion of the Deputation of Barcelona destined to promote
the celebration of company meetings, congresses, conventions y other professional events.
The Business Gifts Section of our online shop has been admitted for its select collection
of high quality and design, its personalized attention and its immediate delivery service
to all destinations.
7. BOOKS FOR YOUR LIBRARY
- TODO
DALÍ
 |
Lluís Llongueras is a total artist
with a special sensibility. Stylist, sculptor, photographer and writer, he recently
published a great book about the surrealistic painter Salvador Dalí,
having been not only his hairdresser but also a great friend. “Todo Dalí”
is a unique biography of this genius personality of the 20th century, written
by Lluís Llongueras, another not less genius artist of the 21st century.
Would you like to find out more about Lluís Llongueras?
Read our interview. |
- JOSEP
M. JUJOL. L’ARQUITECTURA AMAGADA
The author of the article “Josep
M. Jujol, an approach” published this interesting biographic and artistic
study of the work of this magnificent Catalan architect.
Author: Montserrat Duran. Languages: Catalan
- JUJOL
EN VALLMOLL
This book is a rigorous and at the same time entertaining and revealing, very well illustrated
study of the most interesting decorative intervention of Jujol in the reformation of
the Roser hermitage of the village Vallmoll, between 1925 y 1927.
Author: Josep M. Vall. Languages: Catalan, Spanish and English.
8. GAUDÍ, TODAY
Most recent news included in this section:
Check out all
our news in this section (articles in the publishing language)
9. BARCELONA’S HEARTBEAT
- THE UNIVERSAL FORUM OF CULTURES ABOUT TO TAKE OFF
On Saturday 8th of May, Barcelona inaugurated the Forum of Cultures, Barcelona 2004.
This international event brings us 141 days of expositions, debates and all kind of
activities related to the diversity, sustainability and culture of peace.
Once more, the city enrols in the organisation of a world event which ambitions are
to contribute to the improvement of relationships between cultures and of mankind’s
relationship with nature. The Gaudí & Barcelona Club, as an entity, is attached
to the forum and will participate in a performance, in August 2004. Will you come and
see us?
Would you like to be updated on everything that happens at the Forum??
Take a look at its website: www.barcelona2004.org
and subscribe * for free to receive its weekly bulletin.
Why not give us a hand with our Barcelona’s Heartbeat section?
We’d love to publish any interesting cultural event or news you’ve heard of.
Send us an e-mail: news@gaudiclub.com
10. CENTENARY DALÍ
2004
Some of the news
published about this extraordinary artist (articles in the publishing language)
11. GAUDÍ TOURS –
TRAVEL WITH US
 |
Our travel agency Gaudí Barcelona Tours, member of the
Catalan Asociation of Travel Agencies –ACAV-, participated with a stand in
the last edition of the “Salón Internacional de Turismo de Cataluña”
–SITC- held from April the 24nd until 27th in the “Feria de Montjuïc”,
Barcelona. We presented our cultural tourism and accommodation offers: |
- GUIDED CULTURAL VISITS. QUALITY TOURISM
Large offer of cultural tours to get a better knowledge of Gaudí’s
works, Modernism and Barcelona in general.
- Architecture with con Gaudí: Personalised tours for
groups, half a day or full day length.
- Barcelona y the Ramblas: Discover the most emblematic spots
of the famous Barcelonese passage
- Excursion to Montserrat, Colonia Güell and Cavas
- Museums “à la carte” and Panoramic Tour
- Other tours:
- Design, painting, sculpture... The artists and their studies
- Lyrical Barcelona : Liceu, Catalan Music Palace, theatres
- Gaudí, Garraf and Modernist Sitges- Gaudí and Jujol in Tarragona
- Reus, Riudoms: Gaudí’s origins
- “El Capricho de Comillas”, Guggenheim Museum and Santillana
del Mar
- “La Casa Botines” in León and the Astorga Episcopal Palace
- Cathedral and Modernism in Mallorca
- ACCOMODATION
All our accommodation and restaurant services are carefully selected, recreating
the modernist atmosphere of Gaudí’s time and offering the possibility
to taste the rich Mediterranean gastronomy in all its flavours.
- HELICOPTER TOURS
Don’t pass out on your chance to enjoy the dream of flying in a helicopter
and seeing Barcelona and Catalonia from the air. We offer a variety of alternative
flights, all different in duration and price.
- DALÍ TOURS; SALVADOR DALÍ,
ONE HUNDRED YEARS ON
At the celebration of his centenary, discover the places that marked the life
and work of the most surrealistic genius artist of all: Salvador Dalí
- Tour Dalí 1: Dalí Theatre-Museum and Girona
- Tour Dalí 2: Dalí Theatre and Museum –
Ultra light flight across Empordà and House-Museum Castillo de Púbol
- Tour Dalí 3: Dalí Theatre-Museum – flight
across el Empordà and Pals
- Tour Dalí 4: Dalí Theatre-Museum – Cadaqués
and House-Museum Portlligat
Want more information? Connect to www.gauditours.com
or send us an e-mail: info@gauditours.com |
12. LINKS OF INTEREST
Internacional Forum of Cultures Barcelona 2004: www.barcelona2004.org
Círculo del Liceo: www.circulodelliceo.com
13. MILESTONES
- PROJECT OF TWO ROYAL GRAVES IN THE CATHEDRAL OF MALLORCA
 |
On May 18th 1905, as a part of the restoration work of the Seo
of Mallorca, Gaudí planned the sarcophaguses of the kings of Mallorca Jaime
II and Jaime III, so that they could be placed in the Trinity chapel. The body of
the first lied in a grave in the middle of the mayor nave, known as “La sopera”
because of its shape. The body of Jaime III was moved to the island from Valencia,
the place where the king was buried since the day he died in 1349.According to Gaudí’s
plans, the Trinity chapel had to be converted into the royal pantheon. The architect
designed the plans and created some plaster models, but the graves got never built
king as Alfonso XIII didn’t like them. The plans and models got lost –
God knows where – and there are only some pictures left, like the ones you
can see here.
|
14. CURIOSITIES
- THE ACHITECT’S MOTIVES
Every day Antoni Gaudí walked from his residence in Park Guell to the Sagrada
Familia. They said that he used all the money he saved by not taking the train for the
construction of the Temple, as the pittances for this kind of services became sparse
because of the economic crisis the country was going through.
One day someone suggested him to do the distance by bike but Gaudí replied: -
No, because I would get there much too fast. I would not be able to think during my
walk and once I would get to my destination I wouldn’t know what to say.
15. SIMBOLOGY OF THE SAGRADA
FAMILIA
-
THE LION
It’s the symbol of bravery and highness, the personification of kingship and
control, as well in the world of animals as in the field of allegory. It is used by
countries as their representative symbol or on their heraldic shield: Spain, England,
Ethiopia, etc. It’s fast, accurate and mortal and commands respect to the rest
of the animals. The lion is also the symbol of the apostle St. Marcos and it will
crown the second tower of the transept of the Temple dedicated to him.
Except for the Sagrada Familia, we also find this animal represented in other works
of Gaudí: in Park Güell, the Artigas Gardens in the Pobla de Lillet...
If you know more, please let us know: news@gaudiclub.com
-
THE SPARROW
This little bird personifies craftiness and daring: it cheekily comes down to earth
for food, withdraws with the same promptness and it’s always on its guard for
any possible threat, whether real or only supposed. It’s a very robust and independent
little bird that lives near people and makes part of their landscape.
16. BECOME A PAYING MEMBER
Would you like to help us to realize our projects and keep up with this
website? If you think our efforts to keep Gaudí’s culture alive, please don’t
hesitate and become
a paying member of the Gaudí Club.
17. ERRATA
Our member Natalio Saludes has rectified the explanation
we gave in our last Gaudí Newsletter in the section “Symbology of the Sagrada
Familia”. The Gaudí News team expresses its gratitude to you, Natalio, and
reproduces your text:
THE OX:
You say: This animal personifies tameness and slavery: the total obedience to the superior
without protest. All its strength lies in the service to the other - who is not always
more powerful than himself – who dominates him completely. The ox is also the symbol
of the evangelist St. Luke and it will crown the second tower of the transept of the Temple
dedicated to it. It also illustrates the Façade of Birth, flanking the Crib (“el
Pesebre”).
As far as my knowledge about this subject reaches, I think you cannot use the word
‘slavery’ neither the words 'total obedience without protest'. The exact word
to describe the symbolism of this animal is 'fidelity'. I refer to a biblical text
where this symbolism is used in order to oppose the fidelity of this animal to its master
and the infidelity of Israel to its Lord:
OX AND ASS: biblical symbols of fidelity to the master
Isaiah 1,3: «An ox recognizes its owner, a donkey
recognizes where its owner puts its food; but Israel does not recognize me, my people
do not understand.»
OX AND ASS: biblical symbols of the peaceful life
in times of the Messiah, because if man can set himself to agriculture it means that he
doesn’t have to apply himself to war because there will be no war.
Isaiah 32, 15 « This desolation will continue until
new life is poured out on us from heaven. Then the desert will become an orchard and the
orchard will be considered a forest Justice will settle down in the desert and fairness
will live in the orchard Fairness will produce peace and result in lasting security. My
people will live in peaceful settlements, in secure homes, and in safe, quiet place. Even
if the forest is destroyed and the city is annihilated, you will be happy, you who plant
seed by all the banks of the streams, you who let your ox and donkey graze”
OX AND ASS: biblical symbols of God’s Kingdom, because these
animals do no harm to other animals
ISAIAH 65,13ss « Therefore thus said the Lord GOD,
Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart,... For, behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,… But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create.
And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall
be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying…They shall live in the houses they
build, and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and
dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,
says the Lord -».
This is the symbolism which makes the evangelist place
the ox and the ass in the Crib, representing the ‘FAITHFUL PEOPLE' waiting for the
arrival of their Lord; at no point the Bible talks about slavery from man to God.
Sincerely yours,
N.Saludes Martínez.
18. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Gaudí News team would like to express its gratitude to:
Joan Bassegoda and Montserrat Duran for his articles.
Robel Perea, Mari Carmen Vas González, Concepció Moya Sales,
for sending us pictures and texts.
Neus G.Ràfols, for helping us to draw up “This week’s
specials”, within the new section “Barcelona’s heartbeat”.
Natalio Saludes, for his accuracies about the symbolism of the Sagrada
Familia.
The Mexican company Capizzi for its invitation to disperse Gaudí’s
figure at the trade fare of Chicago
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