Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Spain Barcelona Beauty

Gaudi is the featured artist here in Barcelona, Spain. I wonder if that's where the English word gaudy comes from. The following an excerpt from CyberSpain

One of the most celebrated Spanish architects around the globe is Antoni Gaudí i Cornet. Yet as it is always, this is a testimonial of a great human being that was caught in the mires of his time, the petty political divisions of the Spanish politics of the turn of the century, and yet whose artistic creations have risen to international recognition. Gaudí, as we shall see, was not a pompous men, and his simplicity and character permeate his architecture, almost as if freeing architecture from the laws of physics and defying gravity itself; his style is often described as a blend of neo-Gothic and Art Nouveau, but it also has surrealist and cubist elements.

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was born on June 25, 1852, in Reus, Catalonia; the son of Francesc Gaudí i Serra, a coppersmith, and of Antonia Cornet i Bertran, Gaudí was Christened Antonio Plácido Guillermo Gaudí i Cornet.

Gaudí was inscribed in the School Maestro Berenguer at the Monterols Street in Reus, where he met Eduard Toda Güell, who would become one of his life long best friends. By the time he was eleven (1863), Gaudí attended his secondary studies in San Francis Convent, which was run by Pairists, and spent his summers at Mas de la Caldereta de Ruidoms. He was afflicted many times by rheumatic fevers, and this maintained him in solitude from the youthful games; during this long periods of time, he spent observing nature.

Sagradafamilia02 Today my friend Shasta and I walked around the unfinished cathedral at La Sagrada Familia. In a nearby narrow street we walked down, a woman sang an opera song and it was cold and dark.

The picture on the right is of the one third completed work, which has been in progress since 1884, The picture at the right is from Barcelona Tourist Guide.

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