More This and That

Went to the Joan Miro Museum.  We bought our tickets and then decided to have lunch in the little cafe attached before heading into the museum.

Joan Miro; (20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan, Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.  A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundacio Joan Miro, was established in his native city of Barcelona in 1975, and another, the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró (his wife), was established in his adoptive city of Palma de Mallorca in 1981.

In accordance with Miros wishes, the new institution was also to promote and publicise the work of contemporary artists in all its aspects.  At a time when artistic and cultural life was certainly minimal, the Foundation brought a refreshing vitality, together with a new, more dynamic concept of an art museum in which Miró's art was shown alongside a wide variety of creative works by other artists - a fact that is reflected in the Foundation's full name of Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art.  

No picture taking was allowed in the gallery. 

"Earning international acclaim, Miros work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and famously declared an "assassination of painting" in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting".

A huge collection, many of which were entitled "Woman or Women with birds".  There were also many paintings entitled just "Painting". 

I liked this one mostly for its bright colors; which I copied off the internet

When I went over to read the name of it, much to my surprise this is what it is called.

"Man and Woman in front of a pile of excrement".  

Well needless to say, I had to go home and google that.   

"Painted in 1935, this work is one of the most significant examples of the so-called wild paintings. The anguish felt and expressed by the artist is a presentiment of the catastrophy of the Spanish Civil War.

The position and gesticulations of the dislocated bodies seem to allude to an impossible embrace.
The expressive colour, contrasting with the blackness of an apocalyptic sky, the chiaroscuro that accentuates the insubstantial limbs, and the desert landscape and pile of excrement dominating the scene express Miró's profound pessimism".  Well you could have fooed me with that one.

One other Miro piece I will mention is a tapestry. 

Saul Wenegrat, former director of the art program for the Port Authority of New York, had suggested to Miró that he could make a tapestry for the World Trade Center, but the artist declined as he would only make the work with his own hands but had no experience of making a tapestry. However, after his daughter recovered from an accident in Spain, Miró agreed to make a tapestry for the hospital that had treated her, as a token of his gratitude. Having learned the technique from tapestry maker Josep Royo, Miró made several other tapestries with Royo.

The World Trade Center Tapestry was a large tapestry by Joan Miro and Josep Royo. It was displayed in the lobby of 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower) in  New York from 1974 until it was destroyed in 2001.

The work was an abstract design, with bright blocks of colour, red, green, blue and yellow, with black elements and a light brown background. Made of wool and hemp, it measured 20 × 35 feet and weighed 4 tonnes. It was completed in 1973, and displayed at a retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris before being installed in New York in 1974.

A quote by Josep Royo: 

"I was watching television on September 1, 2001.  I was watching all that destruction and the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York, when I realized it was there.  The tapestry created in the World Trade Center in 1974."

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure I get this genre of art, but his work is certainly colorful and most think he was a genius.  Obviously, the Catalans love him. 

We were able to take a few of his sculptures on the terrace.  

Colorful, but weird

Terry's latest conquest

As the gallery is located on Monjuic, the views of Barcelona are great.

Yesterday, we just meandered down by the water and then back up through the Gothic district.

A couple enjoying the sea air

You see these everywhere.  Locals buy a yearly pass and then they can pick up and return these bikes all over the city.  Nice system.

We decided to try and find the "4 Cats" cafe again and stop for a coffee.  Geez by the time we found it (nowhere near where we thought it was), we really needed to rest the feet and the coffee and atmosphere were great.

Pablo Picasso visited this cafe often in his early art career.

A neat place, we may come back sometime for lunch or dinner.

The coffee was good

After coffee, we headed home to rest as we have a theater date tonight.  We are going to a "Spanish Guitar" performance at the Palau de Musica.   The entry hall to a beautiful building

Palace of Catalan Music) is a concert hall.  Designed in the Catalan modernista style by the architect Luis Domenech i Montaner (same Architect who designed the hospital in my previous blog), it was built between 1905 and 1908 for the Orfeo Catala, a choral society founded in 1891 that was a leading force in the Catalan cultural movement that came to be known as the Renaixença (Catalan Rebirth).  It was inaugurated February 9, 1908.

Entry staircases

The concert hall of the Palau, which seats about 2,200 people, is the only auditorium in Europe that is illuminated during daylight hours entirely by natural light. The walls on two sides consist primarily of stained-glass panes set in magnificent arches, and overhead is an enormous skylight of stained glass designed by Antoni Rigalt whose centerpiece is an inverted dome in shades of gold surrounded by blue that suggests the sun and the sky.

What a beautiful building

In a semicircle on the sides of the back of the stage are the figures of 18 young women popularly known as the muses (although there are only nine muses in Greek mythology).

The monotone upper bodies of the women protrude from the wall and their lower bodies are depicted by colorful mosaics that form part of the wall. Each of the women is playing a different musical instrument, and each is wearing a different skirt, blouse, and headdress of elaborate design

bust of Anselm Clavé, a famous choir director who was instrumental in reviving Catalan folk songs, is situated on the left side of the stage, under a stone tree. Seated beneath this statue are sculpted girls singing the Catalan song Les Flors de Maig (The Flowers of May). 

Around the stained glass center piece of the ceiling

The dominant theme in the sumptuous sculptural decor of the concert hall is choral music, something that might be expected in an auditorium commissioned by a choral society. A choir of young women surrounds the "sun" in the stained-glass skylight.  

The organ

We may have to go back and see this on a tour of the buildig during the daytime.  

Oh by the way, the concert was great.  It was an hour of beautiful Spanish Guitar music, a one man show.  He could make that guitar do wonderful things. A great night at the theater.

Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

A city within a city:  

"The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau came into being in 1401 with the merging of the six hospitals in the city of Barcelona at that time. Santa Creu, the Hospital of the Holy Cross, as it was called in those days, was right in the centre of the city, in what is now the Raval district, in one of the most important examples of Catalan Civil Gothic architecture.

By the late nineteenth century, due to the rapid growth of Barcelona's population and advances in medicine,the hospital became too small, and it was decided to construct a new building. Thanks to the bequest of the Catalan banker Pau Gil, the first stone of the new hospital, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, was laid on 15 January 1902, though the new facilities would not be opened until 1930.

The materials chosen for the Art Nouveau Site were the best, the most durable and the most suitable, without overlooking artistic aspects, for the purpose of creating pleasant natural surroundings for the patients.  These materials included red brick; stone, used for all the decoratie architectural details, sculptures, ceramics, with which to clad the domes, roofs and the decorative panels  both inside and outside the pavilions; ceramic mosaic; wood; marble; glass; metal and iron. 

After more than a century as the home of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, in 2009, an ambitious restoration project following the transfer of all healthcare activities to the new Hospital has restored the cultural and artistic glories of the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, the most important work of Catalan architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner.

After almost 4 years of restoration, the Hospital Sant Pau opened its doors to visitors on February 25, 2014.

With this transformation, the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, in which history and innovation go hand in hand, has become a new point of reference in the city of Barcelona.  

Sant Pau hosts a knowledge centre set up by leading institutions in the fields of sustainability, health and education, among others. In addition to running their own programmes and projects in the Site, these organisations undertake joint initiatives geared to finding meaningful responses to the challenges facing society in the twenty-first century.

The plan

Entry into one of he underground tunnels previously used by hospital staff to transport patients from one pavilion to another.  

When we came up out of the tunnel into the courtyard area we were surprised to hear music and people dancing.  A young woman was waiting at the top of the stairs to tell everybody that our visit would be somewhat curtailed by this festive local dance tradition.

This is the Sardana: the traditional national dance of Catalunya; it is a symbol of their national pride and identity. 

The Catalans are a very proud and patriotic people with distinct traditions and culture that set them aside from Castellan Spain. Many Catalans consider the region of Catalunya to be distinct from Spain and even though it is within Spain there has been much campaigning for an independent Catalunya for over 150 years.

Franco saw the Catalans as a threat - their desire for independence and their deep national pride was considered to be insolent, arrogant and a personal affront. His dislike for the Catalans was such that he enforced many crippling laws in an attempt to remove the traditions and language of the Catalan culture and thus make Spain a uniform state. Among other rules he enforced, he banned Catalan being spoken as well as any of the Catalan traditions

The Sardana therefore, is considered by Catalans to be a powerful symbol of national unity and identity, which captures the spirit of Catalunya. Even under tyrannical rule, the true nature of the Catalans remained and this is captured perfectly through the Catalan dancing of the Sardana; people dancing, united together, from all different walks of life and ages, casting their differences aside and proudly saying, with their hands and heads raised high that they are Catalans and proud to be.

The Catalan dancing is complemented by a 'cobla' a small group of musicians accompanying the dance with a selection of brass instruments and lead by the 'flaviol' a type of flute whilst the tambourine sets the rhythm.

So, what is involved in the dance you ask? Circles of people join together- it can either be of the same sex, mixed or with couples. For pure authentication, no formal wear is worn, normal attire is usual, and all ages and classes join in. Dancers hold hands with raised arms and follow a leader who leads the movements and timing.

The steps are meticulous and very precise, one false move and you can put the whole circle out of step! It is also considered bad etiquette if you join a circle that is just made up of couples. When a circle becomes too big, more circles are formed and the final spectacle, with maybe four or five circles dancing is wonderful to watch.

As a tourist you should not join the dance unless you know the steps.  Someone who does not know the steps throws off the entire circle.  My suggestion for tourists is to curb their enthusiasm and just watch and appreciate.  The Catalans will appreciate you for your courtesy.

Ok back to the complex.  What a beautiful place.  It is no wonder it took 28 years to complete.  The pavilions are arranged along two main axes.  All the pavilions are isolated, each one was alloted its own medical speciality and they are linked together by underground pedestian tunnels.  Women were housed in the pavilions on the left and the men on the right.

The beauty of this place almost makes one want to contract some contagious disease, such as tuberculosis in order to be admitted here.  

Decorated stone and ornamental pinnacles.  The domes are clad with monochrome scales in different colours, placed to created decorative patterns.

The tiled ceilings and walls were decorated with ceramics to guarantee hygiene, since ceramic materials are easy to clean.  The gentle colors also served a therapeutic purpose.

This is the largest of the buildings and the richest in ornamentation and decorative profusion.  Built between 1905 and 1910, it was conceived as the main entrace as well as to house the administrative and hospital admission offices.  

Outstanding aspects of the ceiling are the nine vaults resting on stone and marble columns.  In a combination of spheres and ellipses, all the vaults are clad with rectangular pink-lilac tiles arranged like sprigs.  The small circles in the pendentives feature heraldic and numerical motifs linked together against a blue background.  Just a beautiful building.

The grand staircase

The stairway ceiling

A ceiling of a hallway off the main second level

Ceiling

of a day room overlooking the front of the building.  From the windows you can see the Basilica Familia Sagrada

On the balustrade all around the room, in large gothic letters is a prayer that reads:

"Succor, Lord, the benefactors and the inmates of this holy house here on earth and in Heaven and inspire sentiments of charity towards it. Amen."

Painting by Alaix Clapes, represents the transfer of the remains of Saint Eulalia

Relief ceramics

The windows in this room overlook the central courtyard

The hospiital-garden concept was a new one when the Site was buiolt, since at that time open-air areas for patients' enjoyment and wellbeing were regared as unnecessary.  The architect's aim was to design two gardens per pavilion to create a cheerful, optimitstic atmosphere tht wold alleviate the pain and suffering of patients and their famillies and contribute to the patients recovery.  The plants and trees purify the air. They sheltered the open areas from the wind and preserved humidity.  Today, few of he original trees survive, ecept for the two date palms that preside over the planting beds at the entrance and the orange trees.

I hope you can read this sign.  It treats the restoration project as if it were a patient being diagnosed and treated by physicians.  I thought it quite clever and fitting to end this really long blog.  It certainly describes the amount of restoration work required to return it to its former glory.