Gaud? of Barcelona

ISBN 10: 8434313022 / ISBN 13: 9788434313026

Published by Ediciones Polígrafa S.A., 2012

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G8434313022I4N00

Synopsis:

"Color in architecture must be intense, logical and fertile," wrote Catalan architect and designer Antoni Gaudi in his diary in the late 1870s. Known for his sensuous, curving, almost surreal Art Nouveau buildings, Gaudi (1852-1926) is today one of the best known architects in the world. Over the course of four decades, he designed an incredible variety of architectural structures, including apartment houses, private residences, park complexes and religious and secular institutions, most of which were erected in or around Barcelona-such as the Park Guell, the Casa Batllo, the Casa Mila and his masterpiece, La Segrada Familia. With nearly 150 color reproductions, this volume offers a new standard overview of his extraordinary career. Here, Gaudi's undulating tiled roofs, pinnacles and towers that rise like plants or tentacles, chimneys that take on phantasmagoric shapes and colors are accompanied by plans and drawings that provide a clear picture of Gaudi's structural innovations. Luis Permanyer places the architect's ouevre within the context of Catalan and wider European developments of the time, but he also describes the more personal mystical impetus that lay at the core of Gaudi's inventions. For those already familiar with the architect's work, Melba Levick's superb and detail photographs will prove a revelation; for those just discovering Gaudi, this book is the next best thing to experiencing the buildings themselves. Since the late 1800s, Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi's (1852-1926) fanciful buildings have defined Barcelona's cityscape. His playful spires and towers, undulating tiled roofs, and writhing chimneys loom like Dr. Suess creatures atop commercial and apartment buildings alike, and his sculptures are an integral component of many of the city's parks and public spaces. As respected for his technical innovations as for his aesthetic boldness, Gaudi was able to achieve unique, organic, fluid--at times even bizarre--architectural forms that paralleled the stylistic development of art nouveau. The artist's greatest works are brought into dramatic relief against the background of the modern metropolis with 178 specially commissioned color photographs and 13 maps of Barcelona locating Gaudi's works and offering explanatory descriptions of the buildings.

About the Author: Journalist and writer Lluís Permanyer was born in Barcelona in 1939, and has specialized in chronicling his native city. He has been a full-time reporter of the main daily newspaper La Vanguardia since 1966, and has published more than thirty books, including monographs on Miró, Tàpies, and Clavé, and historic studies on aspects of Barcelona. He is also author of the opera libretto for Spleen (composed by Xavier Benguerel) which debuted in Barcelona and Frankfurt.

Photographer Melba Levick has had exhibitions of her work in America and Europe, and her pictures have appeared in magazines worldwide. She has published over twenty books, including Rizzoli's Beach Houses from Malibu to Laguna (1994), Casa California (1996), and Reflections on the Pool (1997). She divides her time betwen Paris, Los Angeles, and Spain's Balearic Islands.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Gaud? of Barcelona
Publisher: Ediciones Polígrafa S.A.
Publication Date: 2012
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket