TND West

We thought Gaudi was great, who doesn’t, but we had heard of another Spanish architect who was considered Gaudi’s rival, one Puig i Cadafalch. After all, there is more to Barcelona than Sagrada Família, the yet to be finished church that looks like it came from another planet that Gaudi famously designed as his signature work. In fact Gaudi is buried there. But what of this other guy? Well, turns out he and Gaudi collaborated on a projects, and designed many significant buildings. We thought of this as we walked down the famous La Rambla as we were quite the luxury Barcelona hotels content to look at other architectural wonders like the Picasso Museum, and of course, sampling the prodigious selction of bars and restaurants in the district Born. We saw many examples of the socalled Modernisme movement. While strolling along on can see the aforementioned church, as well as perhaps the Poble Espanyol, a kind of amusement park with restaurants, which did not interst us much, what with all the other things to see. There are lots of amazing buildings to see and it was great fun walking about, taking in the Barcelona scene. We even witnesses some amazing street performances, a small acrobatic troupe who appeared to be from Morocco according to someone I asked in the crowd, who balanced and and bent wildly, seeming without a care. They reiminded me of the city’s building, balanced and way out there, serene and yet bending to their own wild impulses, great skillfully executed structures that seem alive, the way the acrobats from Morocco were alive, laying it all on the line. there were residential masterpieces, buildings with sculptures on the roofs, and gardens and leafy streets that had a flair for the dramatic and the exceptional.

here is no doubt that the best Valencia hotels are the cream of the cream. In this luxurious setting, with the largest coast on the western side of Spain, Valencia is a lush city with so much to offer. Port cities are often celebrated for their cosmopolitan atmosphere, because the long history of international communication and trade makes for a very hospitable and welcoming ambiance. Guests here will have more to choose from then ever imagined, with culture, food, and incredible beaches on every itinerary. Culturally, Valencia is a fascinating place.

The city has a long tradition of artistic production, and some of the most influential artists in the world have passed through here at one time or another. It is also home to the great futurist artist, Josep Renau. Born in Valencia in 1907, he studied at the School of Bellas Artes, also in Valencia, between 1919-1925. After graduating, he joined the Communist Party, the Union of Proletariat Artists and Writers, and also worked on the magazine “Nueva Cultura.” In this time, he also produced artworks that were largely strictly allied with the dictates of social propaganda, and extremely bold in graphic design, and spoke to the political movements of the time. A vehement anti-fascist, his work was in the new tradition of futurism, but not ideologically tied to their generally fascist tendencies, making him somewhat of an iconoclast. It is interesting to consider the idea of an iconoclast in an iconoclastic art movement, but it is one that many post-futurists would find very amusing.

Futurism had more or less died out long before Josep Renau started working in this artistic camp, but its legacies would continue for a long time, and are still being felt to this day. So it is no wonder that the techniques used by the futurists would be useful to a young artist with political ideas. The main thrust of their artistic argument was that the present time was one of great change, technologically and socially. For the young artists of the day to keep up, or step ahead, in a typical avant-garde maneuver, it was necessary to embrace speed. Not simply speed in duration, but in artistic process, in performance, in the creation of new work. Speed of idea would match technological speed, and the production of artists would be sudden, vibrant, and speak absolutely to their time. Josep Renau found such ideas to be very useful to his contemporary Spain, and he used them to advance his work. This great artist, who would also commission Picasso’s Guernica, died in Berlin.