ANTONI GAUDI: ARCHITECTURAL GENIUS

Everybody here is probably familiar with Gaudi's cathedral in Barcelona, and with his rolling organic shapes covered with tiles. I thought I'd bypass that and concentrate on his less well-known work, like this (above) administrative office in what used to be a stable.

Here's the same room sans furniture and with older, less appealing doors. Whoever restored this did a great job.

Ruskin, the 19th Century art critic, decried what he believed was the decadence of the later medieval cathedral builders who increasingly built for beauty rather than meaning. I was influenced by Ruskin and for years I resisted what I considered Gaudi's beautiful but pointless decoration (above) on religious buildings.

  

Now I love the work. I don't think Ruskin was wrong, but there comes a point where the beauty is so overwhelming that it sweeps aside all objections.

Lots of Gaudi's buildings have verticals that slant in a bit toward the center. That's because he liked to build with stone which could be very heavy and would have required buttresses if built the normal way.

He discovered the precise angle of the slants by building a model of the building consisting of hanging strings pulled taut by packets of lead pellets. He wanted to see how gravity organized the structure.

When the model was finished he photographed the strings and turned the picture upside-down. The upside-down photo let him know how to stabilize the structure. I haven't explained it very well, and that's because I still don't quite understand how the idea works.

During the Spanish Civil War in the 30s anti-clerical forces invaded the cathedral where he kept his models and destroyed them. Gaudi preferred to work from sculptures rather than blueprints so the vandals deprived posterity of what would have been important insights into the man's working methods.

Gaudi was constantly innovating. One day, when visiting his tile manufacturer, he noticed a pile of broken shards which were earmarked for the trash. He took them back to his studio and worked them into Matisse-like wall decorations.

Gaudi loved wrought iron and he used it every chance he could. I like it too. Cliff May liked it and used it. Why has it fallen out of favor?

Above, Gaudi's tomb. He died after being hit by a trolley. Medical help was slow in coming because he was a shabby dresser and passer-bys thought he was a bum. Yikes!