Seize the Day: from Switzerland to Spain: An Intro to Surrealism

Barcelona is home to some of the greatest surrealist artists of all times: Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Antoni Gaudi. During our trip through the catalan city, we were able to visit major works and museums by all three of them.

Picasso oscillated between homes in Barcelona and Paris during his life--when Franco was in power in Spain, Picasso spoke out against his regime and was exiled to Paris. Picasso grew up in an artistic family and was a classically trained painter. While his later, more abstract works may be what he is known for, his beginnings were that of a realist painter. He painted landscapes, portraits, anatomic sketches, and scenes of everyday people, fully capturing every emotion. I had never seen this realism in Picasso's works before, so it was incredible to see how gifted and versatile he was as an artist. The Picasso museum in Barcelona is the largest Picasso collection in the world, the majority of which was donated by the artist himself a few years before his death. The museum was set up so that as you walked through it, you went chronologically through his works: from realism to surrealism. One could also note how his time in Paris and how life events effected his works and style.

Two Naked Women, drawn during Picasso's transition from realism to surrealism

Una mujer sentada

Le Piano (Velazquez) 1957

Dad and me on a balcony in the Picasso Museum

Salvador Dalí lived the majority of his life in the nearby city Figueres, with short stints in Paris as well. As a result, Figueres is home to the largest collection of Dalí originals. I visited the Dalí museum in St. Petersburg, FL when I was a junior in high school and fell in love with his works. My parents had a similar reaction when they went to Figueres. Every piece of Dalí's art is layered with meanings. From up close, many of his early works look like realist paintings, but from afar another image is seen from this collection. Full images make faces, or faces are seen in different areas of the painting. On of his paintings, A Basket of Bread, appears as a simple loaf of bread in a basket, but if you look closely, there are 22 different animal figures that you can make out from the curves and the brushstrokes of the painted bread. It is astounding how he knew what a piece of art would look like from afar, as he was painting the small segments. Many have said that he was decades before his time and was able to do things with his eye that we now rely on computers for (ie pixelation, multiple images, etc).

Dali's final wife and love, Gala, was his muse for most of his works; most of his works either have her in them or are named after her. Dalí was also skilled in painting himself in a painting, either through a reflection or by adding his notable mustache to someone else.

Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea: from afar, the painting appears as a pixelated Lincoln, up close we see that it is Gala staring into the Mediterranean

Dalí's Still Life

The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1970)--note that the bodies of each of the women appear as silhouettes of faces of woman from afar

The Mae West Room.

Dad in an entryway in the museum

Dalí from the Back Painting Gala from the Back 1972-1973

Dalí painted ceiling: note the Dalí mustache given to Michelangelo (blue shorts on the right) as he is depicted painting the sistine chapel in the painting

Galatea of the Spheres (Galatee aux Spheres) 1952

Melting clock 'The Persistence of Memory' tapestry above Dalí designed bedroom

Dalí himself

The final part of the Dalí museum was a jewel collection. Dalí sketched and designed various jewels and jewelry that were made decades later according to his design. These jewels are on display in a separate exhibition.

Jewelry designed by Dalí: a mouth shape pin with ruby lips and pearl teeth

Unlike the previous two artists, Antoni Gaudi was an architect who used buildings as a medium for his artwork. His most famous work, the Sagrada Familia cathedral, was largely designed and started by him, but has been under construction for over 130 years now, in continuation of his original design. It is intended to be completed by 2026-2030 for the 100th anniversary of the artist's death. At the start of construction, Sagrada Familia was quickly progressing. However, work ceased for ~30 years during WWII and Franco’s reign. The church was funded by donations, so when there were little or no donations, there was also little or no progress. Now there is an entrance fee to enter the sacred cathedral; 80% of funding for construction comes from ticket sales and 20% comes from additional donations.

While some may argue that taking this long to build a church is unheard of, the intricacy of the building definitely explains it. The facade follows the life of Christ: the eastern entrance of the church, where the sun rise, depicts scenes from the nativity, whereas the western backside, where the sun sets, shows scenes from the crucifixion. When the work is finally completed, there will be a total of 18 spires, in ascending heights: 12 dedicated to the apostles, 4 to the evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), one for the Virgin Mary, and the tallest dedicated to Christ. At its completion it will be the tallest (St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican will remain the largest though) religious building in the world.

Sagrada Familia

Praising the newborn King under the Star of David

nativity scene on the facade of Sagrada Familia

inside Sagrada Familia

me inside Sagrada Familia

Following our visit to Sagrada Familia, we traveled to Parc Güell, a park designed by Gaudi and originally intended for Barcelona's wealthy citizens. However, the park is located 2.5 miles north of the city center, so was impractical for its time. Like Dalí, Gaudi is also known for being ahed of his time: nowadays the middle-upper class live in the suburbs/outskirts of the city center, so a park located there would have indeed been perfect. However, back in the early 1900s, when cars were not prominent, the upper class wanted to live in the middle of the city, where everything was going one, hence making Parc Güell impractical. The park itself is enormous and completely decorated in Gaudi style mosaic with wavy walls and the famous mosaic dragon at the park's entrance. The park is situated on a hill, so one can climb to the top and see a view of Barcelona, the ocean, and the mountains from above.