Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona and the Modern Mosaic

Gaudi shakes up the world of architecture and mosaic

Spain not only brought us the mosaics of the Alhambra in the South of the country; it also gave us the the modern mosaics of Barcelona in the North.  They were created for buildings and parks  by Catalan architects Lluis Domenech I Montaner, Antoni Gaudi and Josep Maria Jujol in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries.  The most famous of these three is certainly Gaudi whose magnum opus, the church of La Sagrada Família is yet to be completed after more than one hundred years of construction.  The most significant quality of these architects' work is the seamless integration of architecture, sculpture, stained glass, ironwork and of course mosaics.  This created a joyous artistic style known in Catalan as Modernisme.  Their radical approach to mosaics was to mix traditional, square cut tesserae with irregularly shaped pieces selected from broken ceramic tile--a technique appropriately called broken tile mosaics.  These mosaics have a great deal more surface interest than traditional mosaics do.

Let's take a look at one of the early examples of this this style of architecture and mosaic creation, the Palau de la Musica Catalana by Montaner.  It's a concert hall designed for the Catalan Choral Society and it certainly would be a visual as well as an aural treat to attend a concert there.

Interior of the Palau with muses behind stage

Mosaic on the exterior facade-left side

Mosaic on the exterior facade-right side

Vent surround

Columns

The muses-upper sections

The muses-lower sections

The epitome of the Modernisme style in architecture is Gaudi's basilica La Sagrada Familia (Holy Family).  It has a surreal quality that is best described in photos rather than words.

 

 It's been in construction for a century now and on first viewing seems to be more of a fanciful sculpture that a house of worship.  The mosaic detail on the spires define the power as well as whimsy that broken tile mosaics can impart to architecture.

                                                                                      

Another of Gaudi's great works is the Park Guell, a horizontal creation as opposed to the verticality  of the the cathedral.

The Park Guell's famous lizard

Benches in the Park Guell

The Barcelona style of broken tile mosaic, usually identified with Antoni Gaudi remains popular to this day.  In our next post we'll profile some contemporary examples of this popular technique.
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George Woideck 


 

George Woideck is a ceramic artist specializing in tile and mosaic.  View his work as artist-in-residence at tileandclayart.com .  See his recent projects on the Behance Network.  Call George at 216 225 0368.  Email him at gwoideck@tileandclayart.com.