Saturday, August 23, 2014

Impending Senility

I promised more information on Antoni Gaudi, the renowned architect of the magnificent Sagrada Familia Cathedral.  Gaudi was born in 1852 and died in 1926.  His works are mostly found in Barcelona and are in the Catalan Modernism style.  His passions in life and his influences in his work were architecture, nature and religion.

Gaudi rarely drew plans of his work, but preferred to create three-dimensional models. "Gaudi had a deep appreciation for his native land and great pride in his Mediterranean heritage.  He believed Mediterranean people to be endowed with creativity, originality, and an innate sense for art and design. He described this distinction by saying, 'We own the image. Fantasy comes from the ghosts. Fantasy is what people in the North own. We are concrete. The image comes from the Mediterranean' ". *

At the beginning of the twentieth century he worked on many projects simultaneously.  These works show his shift to a more personal style inspired by nature. One of his most memorable projects, to me, Park Guell was an unsuccessful urbanization project.

Due to my impending senility, I am referring you to a website for photos. (Cleared cards out for next trip, can't find files on easy drive, can't find cards that I cleared...)

http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/gaudi/barcelona-gaudi.html

From 1910 on, Gaudi dedicated himself to his work on Sagrada Familia, which remains unfinished to this day.

On June 7, 1926, while taking a walk, Gaudi was struck by a passing tram and lost consciousness. As he had no identification on him and was shabbily dressed, he did not receive immediate aid and died a few days later.  His remains are interred within Sagrada Familia.

You can read more about him on Wikipedia.


*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaudi

As my next adventure is quickly approaching, and my next glass project will come from Pittsburgh...I don't expect to make a trinket about my Spanish trip for awhile.

Coming soon: Crossroads of the Adriatic: Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro & Bosnia.

Goal for next trip:  take better notes...not that I can read them, anyway, blog while on trip or shortly thereafter...while I can still remember the trip!