Modern Art

The House of Bones is representative for the Art Nouveau style, with its remarkable ground floor tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work.

Its mosaic façade, which combines broken ceramic tiles in shades of golden orange and greenish blue, as well as its unusually arched roof, its turret and cross re-tell the story of St. George fighting the dragon.

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The monument, whose structure recalls the symbolism of ‘axis mundi’, was built in 1938, in honour of the young soldiers who had lost their lives in the fight against the German troops during the First World War.

It is considered to be one of the most representative works of art of the 20^th century.

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‘I must have been six when I had an imaginary, and very intense, friendship with a little girl… of about my own age. […] “My imaginary friend” was always waiting for me. […] She had a lithe little body and danced as if she didn’t weigh a thing. I followed all her movements and while she danced I told her my secret problems. […] In my own voice I filled her in on everything that was happening in my life….’ – The theme of the artist’s double, embodied in this particular painting dating from 1939, is also present in the artist’s diary, as shown above.

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The massive Roman-Catholic Cathedral has been under construction since 1882 and is probably going to be completed in 2026. According to its designer, the laws of architecture, those of nature and religious symbolism are three inseparable companions. Therefore, in the context of a permanent dialogue with nature, the Cathedral offers us the unique stone-sculpted image of vegetal and mineral geometry.

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The following work of art is one of the cultural iconic images of the 20^th century. It includes the appearance of the ‘soft watch’.

In his autobiography, the painter claims that the idea came to him while contemplating the ‘super-softness’ of the runny Camembert cheese he was having for dinner on a hot summer evening.

The ‘soft watch’ is a metaphor for mankind’s ephemeral nature.

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Casa Milà, with its undulating iron-wrought balconies that would remind one of sea waves and a façade similar to a rock cliff with caves – was built between 1905 and 1912. It is to be noticed that the goal of the architect was to avoid straight lines completely: the façade of the building does not allow tracing any vertical lines between the roof and the ground.

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