Friday, 24 July 2009
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
17 May. MNAC's Department of Photography was opened in 1996 to promote Catalan photography and an appreciation of its history. The collection includes about 1200 photographs with examples of pictorialism, New Vision, New Objectivity, Neo-Realism and contemporary work. Some fifty of these photographs are on display in a single room of the museum, housed in the Palau Nacional (built for the 1929 International Exhibition).Jorge Ribalta (1963 -), Viatges d'invencio (1987), creates photographic fictions using images of small-scale models (cf. Rodchenko's photographs of paper figures), Toni Catany (1942 - ) Natura Morta (1987/8), has developed Fox Talbot's calotype process, Martí Llorens (1962 - ), Avinguda Icaria (1987) toned using selenium and tea, also uses techniques originating in the early history of photography, Manuel Esclusa (1952 - ), Naufragi (1984), uses montage and like Ribalta interrogates 'indexicality' in fictional compositions, Mariano Zuzunaga (Lima, Peru, 1953 - ) arranges a grid of images repeated with small variations, reminiscent of work of Sol Lewitt.
Ton Sirera (1911-1975), Liquen sobre roca (1959), abstract microscopic textures. Leopoldo Pomés (1931 - ), Parallel (1957), Sensa titol (1957) (cf. Aaron Siskind, Walker Evans) is known for his architectural photography. Pere Català Pic (1889 – 1971), Vas de cristall (1935), study in light. Emili Godes (1895-1970), Cactus (1930). Josep Masana (1892 - 1979), Radiadors (1970), montage of repeated images.
Elsewhere in the museum can be found the postcards of Barcelona monuments and typical landscapes of Adolf Zerkowitz (Vienna 1884 - Barcelona 1972), and trichrome bromoil landscapes of Josep Maria Casals i Ariet (1901-1986).
Friday, 17 July 2009
Pines
16 May.
On the ascent to Tibidabo along Carretera de les Aigües, on the fringes of Parc Metropolità de Collserola.
On the ascent to Tibidabo along Carretera de les Aigües, on the fringes of Parc Metropolità de Collserola.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Monday, 13 July 2009
Presó Model
13 and 15 May, Carrer de Nicaragua and Carrer del Rosselló. El Centre Penitenciari d'Homes de Barcelona occupies two blocks of the L'Esquerra de l'Eixample, built as a Model Prison by Josep Domènech Estapà and Salvador Viñalsin in 1888 -1910: the six prisoner wings radiate from a polygonal centre, and a further administrative building lines the perimeter, the entrance on Carrer Entença. A new prison planned in the Zona Franca will see the Model Prison redeveloped for local community use.
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Monday, 6 July 2009
Parc del Guinardó
3 May. The upper reaches of Parc del Guinardó are populated by white pines and a few cedar and cypress trees. The lower part of the park features a descending series of terraces, along the centre of which a stream of water cascades down from its source at a stand of eucalyptus trees. Parc del Guinardó was created in 1918, one of several parks made prior to the 1929 International Exhibition under the direction of French landscape engineer Jean-Claude-Nicolas Forestier and Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí.
Rubió i Tudurí was a key figure in the landscaping of Barcelona, responsible for example for Font del Racó Park (1922-28), the Palau de Pedralbes Park (1925-27), Plaça Francesc Macià (1926) and Turó Park (1934). Barcelona Public Parks Department was founded in 1917, directed by Rubió i Tudurí until his exile to France in 1937.
Rubió i Tudurí presented a paper "The problem of open areas" at the Eleventh National Congress of Architects in 1926 in which he promoted - following Léon Jaussely's Linking Network Plan of 1905 - the creation of a system of green areas structured according to their use and characteristics (forests, parks and children's play areas, and so on). Parc del Guinardó is of tripartite design, an urban area at Plaça del Nen de la Rutlla (amalgamated into the park in 1977) leads in to terraces and lawns divided by lines of trees and shrubs, then the historical park begins the ascent of the hill, and finally zigzagging paths take one in to the pine forest. This structure reflects the general arrangement of parks in Barcelona: enclosed by the Collserola hills, there is a semicircle of external parks, inside which lie suburban parks, followed by city parks and district gardens.
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Parc Güell
2 May. The upper slopes of Parc Güell were fenced off on account of tree surgery in progress, but the resourceful visitor could discover a gap to squeeze through ...
Parc del Carmel
2 May.
Thus I reach photographs from Barcelona from where I returned a month ago having spent a month posting photographs from Oxford and surrounds during the month before the time I arrived to the screams of swifts, as described earlier.
Parc del Carmel - adjacent to Parc Güell - was in full sneeze-inducing bloom. At a bend in a track ascending the hill rests an array of inscribed sandstone blocks, The Present Order, carved by Peter Coates for the Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay, on which the words L'ORDRE D'AVUI ÉS EL DESORDRE DE DEMÀ [Today's order is tomorrow's disorder], attributed to Saint-Just, invite one to rearrange the stones as a demonstration but their weight is such that you end up just sitting on them.
Thus I reach photographs from Barcelona from where I returned a month ago having spent a month posting photographs from Oxford and surrounds during the month before the time I arrived to the screams of swifts, as described earlier.Parc del Carmel - adjacent to Parc Güell - was in full sneeze-inducing bloom. At a bend in a track ascending the hill rests an array of inscribed sandstone blocks, The Present Order, carved by Peter Coates for the Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay, on which the words L'ORDRE D'AVUI ÉS EL DESORDRE DE DEMÀ [Today's order is tomorrow's disorder], attributed to Saint-Just, invite one to rearrange the stones as a demonstration but their weight is such that you end up just sitting on them.
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