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I am lucky to be able to walk around Barcelona and almost every day along Avinguda Diagonal in Barcelona, ??without rushing. And, despite having done it for many years, I continue to discover new corners with true works of public art: sculptures, engravings, buildings… that had often gone unnoticed by me.
I think this happens because of the strong personality that “la Avinguda” has, which overshadows the different and beautiful corners that surround it, making it sometimes difficult to discover the charm that it holds deep within.
Today I would like to share with you in The Photos of the Readers of La Vanguardia (if you feel like it and are curious to discover some of these small treasures), an urban route of approximately 2 km, where together we can discover some unexpected surprises of the public art of this fantastic city of Barcelona.
Route of six outdoor works by different artists, from Línies al vent (Líneas al viento), by Andreu Alfaro, to Les Taules de la Llei (Las Tablas de la Ley), by Josep M. Subirachs and Sitjar. Let’s start this tour of urban art, well, with Alfaro’s work
Located at the foot of the Atalaya building, it was commissioned by the promoters themselves and is one of the first sculptures by Andreu Alfaro in Barcelona, ??made in 1971.
In it he experiments with geometric shapes derived from a generatrix that would characterize the work, albeit with a singular format based on the repetition of quadrangular elements.
Andreu Alfaro, (Valencia, 1929 – 2012) was a self-taught sculptor. He began his artistic activity at the end of the fifties with a sculpture of constructivist heritage to develop, in the following three decades, a changing and diversified work but faithful to certain basic concepts: the assimilation into artistic creation of the methodology of processes and industrial materials, a synthetic vocation in form and the conviction that sculpture must recover its public and commemorative character.
He held his first individual exhibitions in 1957 and 1958. He has participated in the Venice Biennale on several occasions (1966, 1976 and 1995), and his works frequently attend the prestigious fairs in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Basel, Paris or Madrid. Among his more than 50 individual exhibitions, it is worth highlighting the important retrospectives of 1979 at the Palacio Velázquez in the Retiro Park in Madrid and 1991 at the Valencian Institute of Modern Art; and the exhibitions in 1989 in Paris, at the Galerie de France, in 2000 in Quadrat Bottrop, at the Josef Albers Museum and in 2001 in Den Haag, Scheveningen, at the Museum Beelden aan Zee.
Special mention deserves its almost one hundred monumental sculptures, built on surprising scales and with a vocation to integrate into public spaces as true collective monuments, which are found in numerous Spanish cities (Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, ??Burgos, Gerona), in Germany ( Cologne, Mainz, Frankfurt…) or in the USA (New York).
In recognition of his long and creative dedication to sculpture, he has been awarded the National Plastic Arts Award (1981) from the Ministry of Culture, the James I Honorary Award (1980) and the Sant Jordi Cross (1982) from the Government of Catalonia. In 1991 he also received the Alfons Roig Award from the Provincial Council of Valencia.
That same year, his work The Door of Illustration (Avenida de la Illustration, Madrid) received the Urban Planning, Architecture and Public Works award from the Madrid City Council. In 2016 he was posthumously awarded the IVAM Prize and the Medal of the University of Valencia.
If we follow the urban route, we will find ourselves in Avinguda Diagonal, number 632 in Barcelona (lado montaña), La Siega (1930-1945).
It is a sculpture with a rural scene in relief made of white marble by the sculptor Enric Casanovas, begun in 1930 and completed in 1942.
This work has been located since 1973 at the entrance of the building on Diagonal 632. Under the shade of a porch, behind a small garden, we find a beautiful sculptural work by Casanovas, which if you don’t pay attention, we can pass by without realizing it. the magnificent composition, and the delicate reliefs of the work.
Enric Casanovas Roy (Barcelona, ??1882 – 1948) was a Catalan sculptor, one of the leading representatives of Noucentisme (a Spanish aesthetic movement, initially artistic and literary, but extended to other areas of culture, which is generically associated with the artistic and avant-garde movements). literary works of the beginning of the 20th century).
He began his apprenticeship at the age of fourteen in Josep Llimona’s studio. In 1900 he entered the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, ??made his first trip to Paris and later obtained a travel bag. He soon returned to Paris; After his first exhibition in Els Quatre Gats (the four Cats), in 1903, he alternated his stays between the two cities until 1913. He was a friend of Maillol, Gargallo, Picasso and Manolo Hugué. He traveled to Belgium around 1909, and to London in 1913, the year in which he decided to settle permanently in Barcelona. He furthered studies in Brussels, Antwerp, London and Florence.
His sculpture led to the ideal of beauty, symbolized by the model of the Catalan girl. She created a young woman, with a soft and heavy body, with few anatomical appreciations, and a face with slanted eyes, poorly contrasted. Her aesthetics reflect fullness, robustness, a feeling of life and grace. She was faithful to the simplification of the forms, but taking care that this did not blur her figure. Synthesis, beauty, youthful serenity, popular simplicity, are her characteristics.
He came to create his own work, serene, balanced and personal, most of which consists of figures and busts in marble, bronze and stone. He represents in Catalonia the classical sculptural trend, but with important roots, which translate a Mediterranean spirit through its harmony and placidity, a style that characterizes him as a significant representative of Noucentisme.
In 1898 he participated for the first time in an exhibition at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Zaragoza, where he won a medal. In 1903 he exhibited at the Quatre Gats in Barcelona and between 1904 and 1913 he alternated stays between Paris and Barcelona and made friends with Picasso, Maillol, Gargallo and other artists. He was a friend of the Girona architect Rafael Masó, who commissioned a sculpture from him for the Athenea Society, which was ultimately not made. He received the gold medal at the Barcelona International Exhibition of 1929. He entered the Sant Jordi Academy of Fine Arts in 1932.
Exiled in France since 1939, he returned to Barcelona in 1943, where he died in 1948 at the age of 66. If you liked what we have seen so far, we can continue enjoying the sometimes invisible wonders that Barcelona’s Avinguda Diagonal holds.
I suggest you follow the urban sculpture route, visiting a magnificent “sometimes invisible” very unique “analematic” type sundial, which decorates the Barcelona pavement, in Plaça Reina Maria Cristina, at the confluence of two avenues: Avda. Diagonal and Avda. Carlos III of Barcelona (mountain side), where, by the way, you will find public benches, where if you wish, you can sit to regain strength.
This watch is special, because it requires a person to operate. It has been located on the pavement since 1997, in Plaça de la Reina Maria Cristina. Designed by Eduard Farré and the artistic part is the work of Quim Déu. To the left of the photograph, a representation of the terrestrial globe. And practical instructions for knowing the solar time appear on the marble monolith.
The analematic clock is a type of sundial that is usually designed on a horizontal surface and the hour scale is located on the perimeter of an ellipse. This type of clock, designed for the first time in the 17th century, differs from the usual ones in that it does not use the gnomonic projection (without a rod or needle and is used to study the apparent movement of the Sun through the evolution of the shadow). that projects).
The layout of this type of clock is based on the orthographic projection of the circles of the celestial sphere. Their characteristic is that the vertical gnomon must adjust to the reading date. The name analemma in the name of this watch is the source of confusion today with the celestial analemma and is certainly problematic. The clock of this type has several uses outside of measuring time, being an instrument capable of providing guidance.
The sundial is basically made up of two parts: the object that produces the shadow and is called the gnomon and the plane on which it is projected, which is usually called the hour plane.
The first thing you will observe is a large sphere on the ground made of aluminum, bronze, concrete and dyed asphalt, with a drawing in the center in the shape of an eight (in astronomy, the elliptical curve in the shape of an eight that describes the position of the sun in the sky if we look at it every day of the year at the same time and from the same place), in which the twelve months of the year are marked and around all of them, the hourly figures and some colored dots appear black forming an arch.
It is a sundial and as such the time is marked by a shadow generally produced by a needle, which in this case does not appear, since it is the people who mark the time with their shadow. It is necessary to position yourself in the right place to know the solar time, performing the function that the needle would do, which transforms the operation of this sundial into a playful and participatory proposal, with examples that date back to the 16th century, and the They become something very fun and simple.
If the day we visit the clock is sunny, and we want to know the solar time, our own body and, with it, our own shadow is in charge of showing it. To do this we only have to place ourselves on the mark of the current month, that is: towards the strip towards which we project ourselves will be the solar time. Very suitable to visit with children.
It always catches my attention when I pass by to see how people, cyclists, scooters, pass over the clock without noticing it, despite measuring 10 meters in diameter.
Probably, some informative posters in the different places we have visited, which convey a brief and simplified message about the work, would greatly facilitate the visitor’s understanding.
The monument to Doctor Dòmenech Martí i Julià, in Reina Maria Cristin Square, is a sculpture by Josep Dunyach i Sala and a bronze plaque with the portrait of the honoree, by Josep Ricart Maymir. It was inaugurated in 1936.
Materials: stone and bronze. Dimensions: 356 x 86 x 86 cm. Inscription on the bronze plaque: 1861-1917. On the pedestal: BARCELONA / A / MARTI JULIÀ.
Above a simple prismatic pedestal, which contains a bronze plaque with the portrait of the honored work by Josep Ricart and the dedication, is the sculpture of a female figure, naked in half, with flowers in the cloth she carries in her hands as offering, work of Josep Dunyach. It is a typical Noucentista monument.
Domènec Martí i Julià (Barcelona 1861-1917) was a psychiatrist, director of the Les Corts Phrenopathic Institute between 1909 and 1915 and president of the Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, as well as an irreducible Catalan nationalist, who presided over the Catalanist Union. since 1903 and tried to convert it, without success, into a nationalist social democratic party in 1916. Anti-colonial and anti-racist, he believed that emancipatory nationalism should go hand in hand with international socialism.
Francesc Macià and other politicians considered him a precursor. In 1933 fifty-three Catalan organizations asked the Barcelona City Council for a monument dedicated to the character. It was inaugurated on June 21, 1936. After the civil war, the plaque and inscription were removed, so the monument remained silent until 1978, when the portrait and dedication were restored.
Josep Dunyach Sala (Barcelona, ??1886 – 1957) was a Catalan sculptor. He trained at the Escola de la Llotja in Barcelona.
Josep Ricart Maymir (Taradell, 1925 – Barcelona, ??2020). He trained in the Escola de la Llotja.
A unique sculptural group by Frederic Marès at Avinguda Diagonal, 635, is dominated by a hunting sculpture with a deer chased and killed by a pack. Welcome to the Vicens Vives gardens (he was a professor at the University of Barcelona).
It is a very busy place, which was created in 1967 as a private park and opened to the public in 1990. It has about 2,000 m2. We are talking about the Jardins Vicens Vives, curious and little-known gardens made up of a group of trees, especially pines (Pinus pinea and Pinus halepensis), magnificent Himalayan cedars (Cedrus deodara) and sculptures with animals: deer, wild boar, roe deer. , wild goats… made of bronze, marble or stone. They are all different. It is the work of the Catalan sculptor Frederic Marès (1893-1991).
This small, large lively forest, in the midst of so much noise, is a true treasure, where you can perceive culture and health, in a place that breathes peace and tranquility.
The garden project was entrusted to Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí, and the sculptural decoration to the also veteran Frederic Marès.
Marès was inspired by hunting to make the sculptural group; To model the figures, he consulted with an expert hunter, the Count of Yebes.
It seems that the reason for paying this tribute to hunting art lies in the fact that the then president of the bank, who promoted the urbanization, Ignasi Vilallonga, was a fan of it.
The garden space was finally dedicated to the figure of the historian Jaume Vicens Vives. In July 2010, they were remodeled to improve accessibility and the old path with stairs was replaced with the current ramp.
To finish the tour of the urban art route, we will move to Avinguda Diagonal, 662, where we will find a sculpture by Josep M. Subirachs, Las tablas de la Ley, in the Faculty of Law.
Josep Maria Subirachs i Sitjar (Barcelona, ??1927-2014), was a sculptor, painter, engraver, set designer and art critic. He was one of the contemporary Spanish sculptors with the most international prestige. He also participated in a large number of both group and individual exhibitions, in museums and public and private galleries.
Tables of the Law (1959) is a work that can be seen at the main entrance of the Faculty of Law of the University of Barcelona. The mural is located above the main door. The sculptor created the work in collaboration with the ceramist Antoni Cumella, in 1959, in bronze. The measurements are 119 x 80 x 7 cm. It is perfectly integrated into the building.
If you approach the UB Law Faculty building on Av. Diagonal, 684, you will be able to see this magnificent reinterpretation of the tables of the law above the main door. The mural evokes two dialogue figures full of symbols, in different numbering systems, where signs of communication were introduced for the first time, in this case, Roman figures that represent the numbers that head the legal text of Moses.
If you have time, you can search for the mysticism of the work and discover how many Roman figures appear in the relief. The Faculty of Law is part of the Catalog of the architectural and historical-artistic heritage of Barcelona.
