The Guggenheim Museum

The Guggenheim Museum is a modern and contemporary art museum designed by a Canadian-American architect called Frank Gehry. It is located in Bilbao. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast.
This museum exhibits both Spanish and international artists. It is one of the several museums that belong to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Contemporary art

We could not conclude our journey without visiting our closest work samples: Contemporary art. Gonzalli insisted that to do so we visited the Basque Country, but before that... what is contemporary art?

Contemporary art can be defined as art produced at this present moment of time or art produced since the World War II.

Barcelona's houses

Casa Amatller is a building of the Modern art, designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Together with Casa Batlló and Casa Lleó-Morera, it constitutes the three most important buildings in Barcelona´s famous Illa de la Discòrdia.

Casa Lleó-Morera

The Casa Lleó-Morera, a building designed by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, won the award of Barcelona Municipality in 1906.
It is one of the most magnificent houses of one of the most important avenues of Barcelona, the Passeig de gracia inside of the area named “El Quadrat d´or” (Golden square).
The façade had some extraordinary sculptures by Eusebi Arnau, which were one of the capital elements of the building.

Modern Art

As the term indicates, Modern art refers to artistic works produced during the period which extends from the 1860s through the 1970s.

It denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. It is order to experiment. These new artist experimented with new ways of seeing, new points of views, fresh ideas about the nature of materials and the functions or art itself. There´s a clear tendency towards abstraction.

El Escorial

El Escorial is the historical residence of the king of Spain. It functions as a monastery, a royal palace, museum and school. It is located about 45 km northwest of the capital of Spain, Madrid, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

It comprises two architectural complexes of both historical and cultural significance: El Real Monasterio de El Escorial and La Granjilla de la Fresneda, a royal hunting lodge and monastic retreat.

Renaissance

Our research shows us that our nest stop must be the Renaissance.

The Spanish Renaissance refers to a movement in Spain which emerges from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century. It spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries. The year 1492 it is commonly accepted by all as the start of the influence of this movement in Spain.

This focus in art, literature and science is inspired by Classical antiquity and receives an impulse by various successive historical events in 1492:

-The taking of Granada, last city of Islamic Spain and the expulsions of thousands of Muslims and Jewish believers.

-The discovery of the Americas.

-The publication of the first grammar of a vernacular European language, the Grammar by Antonio de Nebrija.