A word from Gaudí
...
“The artists are leaving out by the vanity because they are authors
of a piece of Glory; but what they have to do it is trying that the truthfully glory and
satisfy their spirit in themselves, without boast of having to do it.”
Antoni Gaudí
Number 26, March 2004
13.799 Issues
SUMARIO
- HIGHLIGHTS: II GAUDÍ POETRY AND SHORT NARRATION
CONTEST 2004
- COURSE LEARNING ABOUT GAUDÍ
- NEW FEATURES IN THE WEB: NEW ARTICLES
- CONTRIBUTIONS OF OUR MEMBERS
- OUR GAUDINIAN BOOKSHOP
- GAUDINIST GIFTS
- GAUDÍ & BARCELONA PROFESSIONAL IMAGES
- BEATS OF BARCELONA
- LINKS OF INTEREST
- ADVANCES AND EFEMERIDES
- CURIOSITIES
- SYMBOLISM OF THE SAGRADA FAMILIA
- GRATEFULNESS
1. HIGHLIGHTS: II GAUDÍ POETRY AND SHORT NARRATIVE
CONTEST 2004
ATTENTION: CHANGE OF DATE AND PLACE FOR THE DELIVERY OF THE LITERARIES
PRIZES GAUDÍ 2004
The delivery of prizes of the literary contest will be
made in the prestigious Circle of the Liceo of Barcelona, at the beginning of May. The
change owes to the impossibility, on the part of the Sagrada Familia, to welcome this
act, since the Temple will be the scene of the Parliament of the Religions of the World,
an sympossium assigned to the Worldwide Forum of the Cultures Barcelona 2004.
The Circle of the Liceo, founded in 1847, is an exclusive
Club of lovers of music and the opera. Throughout his years of history it has been reuniting
an important work collection of art of painting and sculpture, that is worth to see. It
is an honor for the Gaudí & Barcelona Club to be able to count with the unconditional
support of this emblematic institution.
Realising the delivery act of the prizes in May, we can
extend the period of admission of works until Monday 19 of April. Take advantage
of this opportunity and decide to write!!!
Send us your gaudinian work to news@gaudiclub.com:
It can be a poetry or a short narration.
All the members of the jury are waiting your participation!!!
Read the rules
of this literary contest
2. COURSE LEARNING ABOUT GAUDÍ
If you want to know more about the architect
you should join the Gaudí course
What do you think when you see a work of Gaudí?
The course Learning about Gaudí will solve your doubts and will extend your knowledge
on the work and life of this genius architect.
In addition, although you are far, it allows you to follow it from any part of the world!
More information
>>
3. NEW FEATURES IN THE WEB: NEW ARTICLES
-
3.1 - JOSEP MARIA
JUJOL: WE BEGIN AN EXCITING STORY
Who was Josep Maria Jujol? The Gaudí & Barcelona Club adds to the voices
that claim a recognition for one of the most brilliant collaborators of Gaudí.
Where finished the one genius and began the talent of the other?
Great sketcher, imaginative decorator and exceptional architect, Jujol demonstrated
in his works a personal art that now we claimed. We are compiling all the existing
information about this subject. Do you want to collaborate? We will thank for any
kind of information, photographies, bibliography, works, opinions...
We present an article about the relation between both architects, Gaudí
and Jujol.
FIND IN OUR BOOKSHOP
THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOVELTIES ABOUT JUJOL
- 3.2 - Religious
Art of Salvador Dalí. Article of Joan Bassegoda
What is your opinion of these articles? Send your comments to news@gaudiclub.com
4. CONTRIBUTIONS OF OUR MEMBERS
Ginny Koumantarakis tells her
experience in the Sagrada Familia and asks some doubts about the Temple. Can you help
her?
Natalio Saludes demonstrates that storks
can be fans of Gaudí, too...
Roberto Urbina Gajardo - plastic artist from Iquique -Chile -discovers
us his work
Our collaborator Montse introduces us her son
Joan, the youngest member of Gaudí & Barcelona Club.
David Lara shows us a gaudinian
park in El Pedernoso, a village of Cuenca, Spain.
Robel Perea send us his best
desires for this year 2004 and some Gaudinian photographically compositions...
Cristina González is an admirer of Gaudí from Valladolid.
She wants to transmit its enthusiasm
for this genius through her collection
of shots that she has taken during her holidays
Thanks a lot to you all for your collaborations!!
As you notice, in this section we will publish your contributions: send your photos and
comments to news@gaudiclub.com
5. OUR GAUDINIAN BOOKSHOP
We have extended the Gaudí Bookstore. Let us introduce you the
new titles:
JUJOL
IN VALLMOLL: The book is a rigorous study and at the same time pleasant and spreading,
illustrated, of the most interesting decorative intervention of Jujol in the reform of
the hermitage of the Roser of the town of Vallmoll, between years 1925 and 1927.
Author: Josep M. Vall. Languages: Catalan, Spanish and English
JOSEP
M. JUJOL. L’ARQUITECTURA AMAGADA: Interesting biographical and artisitc
study of the work of this magnificent catalan architect, that until now it has been always
contemplated under the shade of the brilliant Antoni Gaudi.
Author: Montserrat Duran. Languages: Catalan
6. GAUDINIAN GIFTS
Special Spring, handcraft season!!
We present you two proposals for recovering your artistic
qualities:
- New kits
of cross knit with the Sagrada Familia, the Batllo House, the Palau Güell...
- Kit
Modern Mosaic
Would you like design your own mosaic "trencadís"? We propose you a simple
way for realise it and we provide all necessary materials
Surprise your couple with a detail of a good taste. Or...
Why not? Allow you a caprice!
We have incorporated new
jewels in the shop
7. GAUDÍ & BARCELONA
PROFESSIONAL IMAGES
The Barcelona Forum of the Cultures 2004 is coming next
May. We want to offer Barcelona to the world and the best for that is by doing it with
high quality proffessional pictures. Our contribution for that purpose is by offering
you a royalty free CD with 90 high resolution images of Barcelona and Gaudí. Use
them for your brochures, newspapers, magazines, company releases, ... Order
it hear
8. BEATS OF BARCELONA
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Barcelona has a big riches cultural, that palpitate
as a living creature.
All kind of artistic fluents, many manifestations and knowledgement, all kind of
events... The city is a giant entity that introduce, surprise, find, create, show,
grow and smile at the rhythm of its inhabitants and visitors. |
The metropolis about Gaudí teased his talent requires
a constant attention. It is by this reason that Gaudí & Barcelona Club inaugurates
this new section, where you can find articles, sights, recommendations and some things
more, related always with Barcelona and its culture.
"Beats
of Barcelona" - available only in Spanish, at the moment
Can you help us to extend this section? Do you know some cultural event
interesting?
Send us an e-mail: news@gaudiclub.com
9. LINKS OF INTEREST
Our member Alberto Arredondo has created a web about Gaudí that
distinguishes by offering something more... He explains to us:
"I will explain the web HarmonicesGaudí as
a page dedicated to give the public another seesight of the work of the big architect,
I want to say, nor the plastically, nor the colour, nor the art, but the structure, the
engineering, but the reason under his work. This seesight is hidden by the brightness
of another visual aspects of his work - that normally blind to the observant because he
requires a little more time to look it. By this, in the title page I compare a photography
of the dragon door and the simple structure of the worker Mataronense. The first is what
immediately we observe, but the second -more simple visually but too full of reason (structural
vs. symbolical) which is here behind of all his works. I want to put too that not only
he had interesting ideas, originals and deep, but in more cases this ideas weren't answered
by other architects during decades (by example the circular structure of the basement
of the Pedrera (~1910), that appear as novelty of Leonel Viera in 1957 (pages 278 and
next) in the book "Why buildings Stand Up" of Mario Salvadori. I want to share
with the readers of HarmonicesGaudí my enthusiasm and admiration by Gaudí."
www.harmonicesgaudi.info
Actually, the page is only in English, but the author
will translate it to spanish in the future.
From Gaudí & Barcelona Club we wish you good luck Alberto and that your fascination
by Gaudí remains alive.
And you, Can you recommend any interesting gaudinian link?
10. COMING UP AND ANNIVERSARIES
100 YEARS OF CASA BATLLÓ
The owners of Casa Batlló have decided to celebrate
the 100th anniversary of the building opening all its dependencies to the public. From
the 25th of March, and for the first time, the attic, the peculiar roof with its chimneys
and the courts of light, including the main floor, which is visited since 2002, can all
be admired.
For the celebration of this 100th anniversary, the Gaudí
& Barcelona Club has assessed the cooks who will prepare a gaudinian feast to be served
to the guests.
In 1904 the textile businessman Josep Batlló entrusted
to Gaudí the remodeling of a building in Paseo de Gracia. The architect used all
his creative talent in the house remodeling, which he transformed into an allegory of
the sea. Also known as the house of the yawns or the house of the bones, the Casa Batlló
is an ode to the curved lines. In it, the blue-coloured shades of the facade throw bright
sparkles to the pedestrians, imitating the surface of the sea.
More information
about the casa Batlló
1st CENTURY OF THE RESTORATION
OF THE MALLORCA CATHEDRAL
In March 1903, Gaudí saw for first time the Mallorca
cathedral. He was invited by the priest Campins, who had entrusted to him the restoration
of the Seo. Most of the large windows and skylights were blinded, thus making the interior
of the cathedral very dark. However, Gaudí could see at first glance "the
proportionally and the harmonic correlation of dimensions", as he said in 1903.
On the 2nd of May of 1903, Gaudí wrote in "La Gazeta"
of Mallorca:
“The way we have found the interior of the Seo,
with the large windows nearly all blind, with a principal altarpiece which couldn't
be more unsuitable and disproportionate where it is located [...]
We shall return to the interior of the Seo the lines
and features that were given to it at the beginning; to this it should obey and all
the idea and project of restoration should follow this criteria [...]
First of all, light the interior, with the amount of
light which corresponds to it; leave out the hindrances [...] that deprive it from having
air and space; [...] put the table of the altar closer to the faithful, so that all
of them can see it from any corner of the naves.”
LIST OF ANNIVERSARIES OF THE SAGRADA
FAMILIA
On the 19th of March, 1882, festivity of Saint Joseph,
the priest of Barcelona José Urquinaona Bidot put the first stone of the Sagrada
Familia Temple. In those days, the works were directed by the diocesan architect Francisco
de P. Villar y Lozano. Two years later, on the 19th of March of 1885, the chapel of San
José in the crypt of the Sagrada Familia was blessed.
The idea of building a monumental church dedicated to
San José had been suggested in times of the Vatican Council I (1869-1871), by the
father José Manyanet Vives (1833-1901). Manyanet founded in the half of the 19th
century the religious community Hijos de la Sagrada Familia Jesús María
y José. In the Sagrada Familia Temple we find a sculpture dedicated to him.
Read more
about the Sagrada Familia
11. CURIOSITIES: GAUDÍ’S
ADMIRATION FOR WAGNER
In his youth, Gaudí was a man who liked to dress
with elegance and who enjoyed attending social gatherings of the artists and intellectuals
of the era. In those years, the admiration for the music of Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
was arriving to Barcelona, with the recovery and representation in the Liceo of his operas,
the emergence of Wagner societies, etc. The romantic and nationalist spirit of the music
of the master of Bayreuth didn't leave indifferent the young Gaudí, who enjoyed
the wagnerian works. We could even venture that a parallelism exists between both celebrities:
Wagner practices opera, that integrates music and theatre; Gaudí includes the furniture
design, wrought iron, decoration, etc. in his architecture.
Both, in their respective disciplines, look for the total art.
The words of Joan Matamala, then, referring to his friend
Gaudí, should not sound strange:
«He is a genius artist. I see him as an independent
Wagner, and of such a level, that many things that we do here must seem frivolous to him.
[...] Gaudí is the Wagner of architecture and every time that I see his works,
I would like to know the background, that seems to me to be very deep and mysterious.”
The admiration that Gaudí felt for Wagner was so
big, that even some authors have found an intention in the covering in white and blue
ceramic of the tower of one of the pavilions of Park Güell. These authors say that
this decoration represents the shield of Baviera, because king Ludwig II of Baviera was
the great sponsor of Wagner.
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 |
| Park Güell |
shield of Baviera |
12. SYMBOLISM OF THE SAGRADA
FAMILIA
THE OX:
This animal personifies gentleness and slavery: complete obedience to authority without
arguing. All his strength is always to the service of someone else who isn't necessarily
more powerful than him, but who controls the ox completely. It represents also Saint Luke,
and it will crown the secondary tower of the transept of the Temple dedicated to this
saint. An ox also appears in the Facade of the Birth, flanking the Nativity scene.
THE EAGLE:
The king of the air, that flies and glides with great majesty. Its sharp sight allows
it to spot a prey from big heights, and the prey is inevitably captured in a vertiginous
and almost vertical descent. It has represented, due to its nobility, the imperial idea.
It also symbolises Saint John the Evangelist -the Patmos eagle-. An eagle will crown the
secondary tower of the transept of the Temple dedicated to him.
13. GRATEFULNESS
The team of Gaudí & Barcelona Club want to
thanks all the members for the demonstration of support and solidarity that we have received
by the macabre attacks of March 11 in Madrid and wished that the Culture of the Peace
settles down by all the corners of the world.
Also we want to give tribute to all the people who have
made possible this Gaudí News: Joan Bassegoda by his articles; and Ginny Koumantarakis,
Natalio Saludes, Lily, Roberto Urbina Gajardo, Montse Pociello, David Lara, Robel Perea,
Cristina González and Alberto Arredondo, by sending their photographs and their
comments to us.
THANKS A LOT TO YOU ALL!!
Will you be one of our next collaborators?
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us an e-mail to: news@gaudiclub.com
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