Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WithLes Demoiselles d'Avignon(Ladies of Avignon; 1907), Picasso broke with all forms of
traditional representation, introducing a deformed perspective that would later spill over
into cubism. The subject was supposedly taken from the Carrer d'Avinyó in the Barri Gòt-
ic, in those days populated with a series of brothels.
ART ON THE STREETS
Barcelona hosts an array of street sculpture, from Miró's 1983Dona i Ocell, in the park
dedicated to the artist, toPeix(Fish), Frank Gehry's shimmering, bronze-coloured
headless fish facing Port Olímpic. Halfway along La Rambla, at Plaça de la Boqueria,
you can walk all over Miró'sMosaïc de Miró.
Picasso left an open-air mark with his design on the facade of the Col·legi Arquitect-
es opposite La Catedral in the Barri Gòtic. Other works include theBarcelona Headby
Roy Lichtenstein at the Port Vell end of Via Laietana and Fernando Botero's tumescent
El Gaton Rambla del Raval.
Wander down to the Barceloneta seaside for a gander at Rebecca Horn's 1992 trib-
ute to the old shacks that used to line the waterfront. The precarious stack is called
Homenatge a la Barceloneta(Tribute to La Barceloneta). A little further south is the
2003Homenatge als Nedadors(Tribute to the Swimmers), a complex metallic rendi-
tion of swimmers and divers in the water by Alfredo Lanz.
Heading a little further back in time, in 1983 Antoni Tàpies constructedHomenatge
a Picassoon Passeig de Picasso; it's essentially a glass cube set in a pond and filled
with, well, junk. Antoni Llena'sDavid i Goliat, a massive sculpture of tubular and sheet
iron, in the Parc de les Cascades near Port Olímpic's two skyscrapers, looks like an un-
tidy kite inspired by Halloween. Beyond this Avinguda d'Icària is lined by architect En-
ric Miralles' so-calledPergoles- bizarre, twisted metal contraptions.
Joan Miró
By the time the 13-year-old Picasso arrived in Barcelona, his near contemporary, Joan Miró
(1893-1983), was still learning to crawl in the Barri Gòtic, where he was born. He spent a
third of his life in Barcelona but later divided his time between France, the Tarragona coun-
tryside and the island of Mallorca, where he ended his days.
Like Picasso, Miró attended the Escola de Belles Artes de la Llotja. He was initially un-
certain about his artistic vocation - in fact he studied commerce. In Paris from 1920, he
mixed with Picasso, Hemingway, Joyce and friends, and made his own mark, after several
