Antoni Gaudí

Antoni Gaudi, 1878.

Antoni Gaudi, Parc Güell, Barcelona, Spain.

Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí i Cornet (25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926), also known as Antonio Gaudí, was a Catalan architect famous for his highly individual designs. He was associated with the Modernisme and Art Nouveau movements.

Quotes

• Men may be divided into two types: men of words and men of action. The first speaks; the latter act. I am of the second group. I lack the means to express myself adequately. I would not be able to explain to anyone my artistic concepts. I have not yet concretised them. I never had time to reflect on them. My hours have been spent in my work.
  • La Razón, 1913 in: Gaudi by Gijs Van Hensbergen, introduction p.xxxii [1]

Attributed

• The straight line belongs to Man. The curved line belongs to God.
  • The real author seems to be Pierre Albert-Birot.

Quotes about Gaudí and his work

• After lunch, in sudden rain, we go to see Gaudí's masterpiece - the still unfinished church of the Sagrada Familia or Holy Family. There is nothing in the world like it. It is Disney whimsicality raised to the level of soaring nobility. It is metaphysical conceit humanized with crockets and pompons. It is scrawl and mysticism, vision and fancy, an evanescent dream hammered into sempiternal solidity.
  • Anthony Burgess, Homage to QWERT YUIOP: Essays. London, Hutchinson, 1986 (p.71).

• What I saw in Barcelona – Gaudí – was the work of such strength, such faith, of an extraordinary technical capacity, manifested during a whole life of genius; of a man who carved the stones before his eyes in well thought out pattern. Gaudí is the ‘builder’ of the turn of the century, a man adept with stone, iron and brick. His glory is seen today in his country. Gaudí was a great artist; only those who move the sensitive hearts of gentle people remain. But they are mistreated in the course of their lives, misunderstood or accused of sin toward the mode of the day. Architecture’s significance is shown when there dominates evidence of lofty intentions that triumph over all the problems in the line of fire (structure, economy, technique, utility). Thanks to interior preparation, architecture is the fruit of character – just that, a manifestation of character.
  • Le Corbusier, Gaudí, Editorial RM, Barcelona, Antoni Gaudi y Cornet 79

• A feature of the city which I must mention at some place in this account is the architecture of Gaudi. This I naturally found altogether extraordinary, and at one time or another I must have seen every building of his still then existing in the Catalonian capital...At that time Gaudi was little - known outside Spain, though nowadays universally recognized as one of the great pioneers of modern architecture, and his buildings, particularly the Cathedral of the Holy Family, and also the fantastic rambling park in the hilly suburbs of Barcelona, made a great impact on my imagination.
  • David Gascoyne, Journal 1936-1937. London Enitharmon Press (1980). Quoted in The Spanish Front: Writers on the Civil War (1986), edited by Valentine Cunningham

• Sagrada Familia...is the greatest piece of creative architecture in the last twenty-five years. It is spirit symbolised in stone!
  • Louis Sullivan. From Thomas E. Tallmadge, "The Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family," in Western Architect, XXXI (March 1922).

• For the first time since I had been in Barcelona I went to have a look at the cathedral--a modern cathedral, and one of the most hideous buildings in the world. It has four crenellated spires exactly the shape of hock bottles. Unlike most of the churches in Barcelona it was not damaged during the revolution--it was spared because of its 'artistic value', people said. I think the Anarchists showed bad taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance, though they did hang a red and black banner between its spires.
  • George Orwell on the Sagrada Familia, Homage to Catalonia, 1938