The Mosaics In Antoni Gaudi's Buildings

Antoni Gaudi has little personal writing. These rare bits reveal the source of his passion and character.

On the construction of Sagrada Familia:

There is no reason to regret that I cannot finish the church. I will grow old but others will come after me. What must be considered is the spirit of the work, but its life has to depend on the generations it is handed down to with whom it lives and is incarnated.

On the pursuit in his work:

Originality consists in returning to the origin.

On his thinking:

Those who look for the laws of nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator.

I think these following shots of mosaic pieces in Sagrada Familia bear the distinctive marks of his vision:





















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Artists Of Altamira

Image
These are very old works painted by hunters who never went to art schools. Yet the basic elements of lines, shapes, colours, textures, form, space are combined with such exquisite delicacy and power. The scale of these works are large in comparision to the size of the human person. Why did they draw? For recording? For instruction? For magic? For recreation? For commercial exchange? Purpose aside, these works have a quality that engage the viewers. One can't look at these works and walk away unchanged. These works have an energy that only intelligence, passion and a desire to communicate can evoke a response like a baby's to the mother's presence. Yes. That intimate. Here for some culled background info: "Altamira’s Paleolithic art is between 14,000 and 20,000 years old, and represents the first set of prehistoric cave paintings ever discovered. Several famous painters, including Pablo Picasso, are said to have been inspired by its charcoal and ochre images, which inc
Read more

The Magic Square In Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia

Image
Albrecht Duerer in his woodcut introduced the MAGIC SQUARE. The sum total of the numbers in each parallel column adds up to 34. The sum total of the numbers in each vertical column adds up to 34. The sum total of the numbers in the diagonals adds up to 34. The sum total of the numbers in the four corners: 16 + 4 + 13 + 1 adds up to 34. The sum of the two numbers between the corners: 3 + 2  + 15 + 14;  5 + 9 + 8 + 12...each set adds up to 34. The sum of the four numbers in the centre 10 + 11 + 7 + 6 makes 34. In Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi uses the MAGIC SQUARE above. WHY DID ANTONI USE THE MAGIC SQUARE IN THIS PARTICULAR PLACE? Perhaps to express his faith in the traditional teaching that nothing happens by accident; that the Creator of all that exists has order embedded at the core of its existence. The Magic Square as a symbol then teaches such a subtle lesson! The close-up shows the horizontal, vertical and diagonal numbers addi
Read more

Seymour Chwast

Image
Seymour Chwast, a close associate of Milton Glaser, is another practioner that I admire for his thinking as well as for the imaginative range of his works. Jerome Snyder in an article in Graphis wrote: "Chwast is fundamentally a humorist. His humor is dry, ironic, only rarely sardonic. The play on images is witty, not flamboyant, taking off on human foibles or meanness in a seemingly deadpan banality that is, despite its first-glance ingenuousness, rich in veins of sophistication and subtlety." To disclaim the idea that humor is a serious business misses the fundamental fact that all comedy has its roots in basic incongruity. A deep awareness of life's anomalies detracts not a whit from the widely accepted belief that Chwast is one of the most influential artists of this century and that he has created a style that is synonymous with the most creative and progressive aspects of graphic art and design. Clearly, there is much more to the man than his some
Read more