Barcelona is renowned for its public art, and the city’s many parks and plazas are replete with monuments ranging from traditional statues paying homage to people and events of the past to intriguing contemporary pieces by international and local artists. But it’s not just the parks and plazas which are full of art. Wherever you…
Tag: art
Roman Scales by Jannis Kounellis
One of a series of eight sculptures which were installed in public spaces in the run-up to the Barcelona Olympics of 1992, Roman Balance, or Balança romana in Catalan, by Greek artist Jannis Kounellis is a reminder of Barcelona’s seafaring and industrial heritage. The statue consists of seven large cast iron balance pans, each loaded…
MNAC: The National Art Museum of Catalunya (Visitors guide & tickets)
The National Art Museum of Catalunya, also known as MNAC, is located in the Palau Nacional near the Magic Fountain on Montjuïc. The museum boasts an impressive art collection spanning over a thousand years, tracing the development of art in Catalonia. The museum is famous for its impressive collection of Romanesque murals from the 11th…
The Fundació Joan Miró Art Museum on Montjuïc (Visitors guide & tips)
The Joan Miró Foundation is a museum of modern art that exhibits the works of Barcelona-born artist Joan Miró. The museum opened its doors in 1975 and was designed in collaboration between Miró and architect Josep Lluís Sert. In addition to an extensive collection of Miró’s work, the museum also contains exhibits by other contemporary…
From Orwell to ‘Tripi’: The History of Barcelona’s Plaça de George Orwell
Tucked away in the labyrinthine heart of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, Plaça de George Orwell was created in 1989, when an entire block of housing was torn down. The creation of this, and other similar plazas, was conceived as a way of opening up the Gothic Quarter and presumably went hand in hand with the generalized…
CCCB: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, or CCCB for short, is contemporary arts centre in Barcelona’s Raval neighbourhood. The centre opened in 1995 in a historic building which was once an almshouse and houses three main exhibition areas, as well as an auditorium, a bookstore, an arts cinema and a digital archive, all of…
Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Visitors guide, tickets & tips)
Situated in an impressive Art Nouveau building in central Barcelona, the Antoni Tàpies Foundation was inaugurated in 1984 to promote modern and contemporary art. The museum houses temporary exhibitions by Antoni Tàpies and other artists and an extensive library of books and journals dedicated to art. On the roof, there are two large sculptures, which…
MACBA: Barcelona’s Iconic Contemporary Art Museum
Housed in an emblematic concrete and glass building designed by Richard Meier, Barcelona’s contemporary art museum, the MACBA or Museu d’Art Contemporani de BArcelona, was inaugurated in 1995. More than just a museum, in addition to its permanent and temporary collections, the MACBA is a centre for art education and research. As the museum’s name…
Visiting the Picasso Museum in Barcelona (Info, tickets and tips)
The Picasso Museum of Barcelona (Catalan: Museu Picasso de Barcelona) is one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions and one of Spain’s best-known art museums. Founded in 1963 by Picasso’s friend and secretary Jaume Sabartés, the museum contains more than four thousand paintings, the most extensive collection of Picasso’s work anywhere in the world.…
Monument to Santiago Roldán (The Ass Monument)
Barcelona is well known for its public art. Wherever you go in the city, you will see statues and monuments decorating plazas, parks and other public spaces. Designs range from classically styled monuments and busts to more unusual, modern and even surreal creations. One of Barcelona’s most unusual and quirky statues is the Monument to…
Monument To The Catalan Volunteers
Monument to the Catalan volunteers (Monument als Voluntaris Catalans) is a bronze statue by Catalan artist Josep Clarà located near the boating lake in the Parc de la Ciutadella. The statue is a memorial to the approximately 900 Catalans who fought with the allied forces during World War One, many of whom had enlisted as…
Homage to Picasso by Antoni Tàpies
Homage to Picasso is a large abstract sculpture that was commissioned by Barcelona city council in 1981 to celebrate the centenary of the artist’s birth. Created by Antoni Tapies, the sculpture consists of a collection of Art Nouveau furniture traversed by iron beams and tied together by rope. One side of the pile of furniture…
MALIP: Monument to Lost Dreams
The Monument to Lost Dreams (Catalan: El Monument a les Il·lusions Perdudes) is a sleek, abstract sculpture by cartoonist and multidisciplinary artist Toni Batllori. Installed in Poblenou in 2015, the pale granite statue was created as part of a fundraising drive for Clowns Without Frontiers (Payasos Sin Fronteras) a registered charity that sends clowns to…
Carmela by Jaume Plensa
Carmela is one of four sculptures by Jaume Plensa which were exhibited at the Palau de la Musica Catalana in 2016. The statue was such a hit with the neighbours that they started a petition on change.org asking the organizers and Barcelona city council to keep it there indefinitely. Carmela Sculpture Carmela was created from…
Monument to Santiago Rusiñol
Santiago Rusiñol was a key figure in Catalan Modernism, an artistic movement encompassing art, architecture, design and literature. Born in Barcelona in 1861, he was the son of a wealthy family which owned a textile manufacturing company founded by his grandfather Jaume Rüsiñol. As a teenager, Rusiñol started sketching and painting in his free time…
A Thoughtful Bull and a Very Flirtatious Giraffe (Statues)
The streets of Barcelona are often likened to an open-air museum or art gallery. From the famous Art Nouveau architecture to monuments, sculptures and street art, there’s something to catch your eye at every turn. Two of the most unusual statues are Thinking Bull (Brau Pensador) and Flirty Giraffe (Girafa Coqueta) which are located at…
Dalinian Triangle Guide: In the Surreal Footsteps of Salvador Dalí
Possibly the best known and most instantly recognisable artist of the 20th Century, Salvador Dalí was born in Figueres, 140km north of Barcelona. Famous for his dreamlike surrealist paintings and eccentric public persona, Dalí spent most of his life in Catalonia. Many of his best-known paintings were inspired by the rocky landscapes and coastline between…
The Wounded Star Sculpture by Rebecca Horn (L’Estel Ferit)
The Wounded Star (Catalan: L’Estel Ferit) by Rebecca Horn is one of several contemporary sculptures that were installed on Barcelona’s waterfront in preparation for the 1992 Olympics. The rusty iron tower is a homage to the rundown chiringuitos (beach bars) and seafood stalls that stood here before the area was refurbished and gentrified in the…
Barcelona Balconies by Cité Création
Balcons de Barcelona (Barcelona Balconies) is a large scale Trompe l’oil style mural painted on the southwest elevation of an apartment building in the l’Eixample neighbourhood, near the Sagrada Familia. Part of a campaign called Barcelona posa’t guapa (Barcelona get pretty) the mural was painted in 1992 in the run-up to the Olympic games. Despite…
Statue of Marià Fortuny
Marià Fortuny i Marsal was a renowned 19th Century Catalan painter whose best-known works are on display in the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) and the Prado Museum in Madrid. Born in Reus in 1838, Fortuny studied art at the la LLotja art school in Barcelona before moving to Rome to continue his studies.…
Stargazers (Miraestels) by Robert Llimós
A few metres from the Rambla del Mar walkway, two pristine white figures float silently in the waters of Barcelona harbour. The 3.55m polyester and fibreglass sculptures, their gaze turned up to the heavens, were designed by Robert Llimós and built by local shipbuilder Marina 92. The Stargazer (Catalan: Miraesteles) statues are 2 of a…
La Parella: The Couple by Lautaro Díaz Silva
One of my favourite walking routes in Barcelona is around the historic Port Vell harbour from the Christopher Columbus monument to the Barceloneta beach. Along the way you can enjoy views of the harbour filled with yachts and historic tall ships, take a look at the classic architecture and admire the diverse collection of contemporary sculptures…
The Shark of the Carmel Mural: El Tauró del Carmel
The Tauró del Carmel is a large mural depicting a giant shark made out of hundred dollar bills that was painted in 2009 by Italian street artist Blu as part of the Influencers street art festival. The original shark mural, which was twenty-five metres long, was meant to represent the insatiable appetite of capitalism which was…
A Room Where it Always Rains by Juan Muñoz
In preparation for the Olympic Games of 1992, Barcelona’s seafront and port were transformed from a neglected industrial area into one of the most attractive waterfronts in Europe. The whole area was given a facelift and a new marina was built, as well as apartment buildings to house the athletes. The old railway tracks that…
Panorama by Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada
Panorama is a 28m high composite portrait which was painted on the facade of the Centre Civic de Sant Martí as part of the 2015 Open Walls Conference. Cuban born artist Jorge Rodríguez-Gerda combined elements of 10 local women to create a portrait that represents the neighbourhood as a whole. The idea behind the composite portrait…
Marc by Robert Llimós
Marc is one of a pair of nearly identical statues by Robert Llimós portraying a colourful, genderless, neo-expressionist human figure holding a large picture frame which it is looking through. The sculpture was inaugurated in 1997 and it’s title is a play on words. Marc means frame in Catalan and the statue is dedicated to the artist’s…
David and Goliath Sculptures in Barcelona
Who isn’t familiar with the story of David and Goliath? The epic tale of a young shepherd boy who, armed with only a slingshot and a few stones, killed a fearsome giant and went on to become king of Israel. Over the centuries the story has become a synonym for the struggle between good and…
The World Begins With Every Kiss (The Kiss Mural)
Approaching the Kiss of Freedom mural in Plaça d’Isidre Nonell you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s a large graffiti. As you get closer, you’ll realise that it is, in fact, a mosaic made up of thousands of tiny ceramic tiles. Each individual tile is printed with a photo of a person, a place, a moment,…
Monument to Antoni Viladomat i Manalt
This bronze statue of Antoni Viladomat I Manalt by Catalan artist Torquat Tasso was one of a series of eight monuments depicting Catalan heroes inaugurated in 1886. In 1959 most of the statues were melted down and used to make a replacement for the statue of Mare de Déu de la Mercè, which tops the…
Joan Miró Welcomes You to Barcelona
In 1968 Joan Miró was commissioned to create a giant mural to welcome visitors arriving at Barcelona airport. The Barcelona-born artist liked the idea so much that he decided to donate three works of art to the city, welcoming visitors arriving by air, land and sea. Joan Mirós Mural at Barcelona Airport The giant mural…
