Barcelona in Focus - Discover Barcelona: Experience the Best of Barcelona - page 537

The Crucial Three
Spain has been a giant in world art ever since Velázquez etched his haunting Las Meninas
and ushered in the glittery Siglo de Oro (c 1492-1680), though Catalonia was a little late to
the ball.
Picasso
It wasn't until the late 19th century that truly great artists began to emerge in Barcelona and
its hinterland, led by dandy portraitist Ramón Casas (1866-1932). Casas, an early
Modernista, founded a Barcelona bar known as Els Quatre Gats, which became the nucleus
for the city's growing art movement, holding numerous shows and expositions. An early
host was a young then unknown Malagueño named Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).
Picasso lived sporadically in Barcelona between the innocence-losing ages of 16 and 24,
and the city heavily influenced his early painting. This was the period in which he amassed
the raw materials for his Blue Period. In 1904 the then-mature Picasso moved to Paris
where he found fame, fortune and Cubism, and went on to become one of the greatest
artists of the 20th century.
Miró
Continuing the burst of brilliance was the Barcelona-born experimentalist Joan Miró
(1893-1983), best remembered for his use of symbolic figures in primary colours. Declar-
ing he was going to 'assassinate art', Miró wanted nothing to do with the constricting labels
of the era, although he has often been called a pioneering surrealist, Dadaist and automatist.
Dalí
Rising on Miró's coattails was the extravagant Catalan surrealist and showman, Salvador
Dalí (1904-89), from nearby Figueres, who mixed imaginative painting with posing,
attention-seeking and shameless self-promotion. Dalí is hard to avoid anywhere in the
world, especially Barcelona.