Modernismo: Architecture and Design in Spain

Catalan modernismo, a cultural and artistic style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was the Spanish equivalent of the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau, the German Werkbund and the Viennese Secession. The common denominator of these movements was the ambition to develop a new concept of beauty based on the creative essence of humankind. This comprehensive study, containing a wealth of information not previously available in English, focuses on all aspects of modernismo. Insightful essays discuss the geographic focus of modernismo, Catalonia and its vibrant capital city, Barcelona, and its historical and social context. Architecture was greatly influenced by modernismo, and various practitioners — Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch — developed personal styles based on patterns inspired by nature. Painting, sculpture, and music were equally affected by the times, moving away from academicism and toward spontaneous and personal creative impulses. All essays are extensively illustrated with spectacular color photographs, showing modernismo's most important buildings, such as Gaudí's Sagrada Familia and Palau Güell; intricate furniture, stained glass, and jewelry; graphic design, notably periodicals and sheet music; and a portfolio of paintings.

Catalan modernismo, a cultural and artistic style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was the Spanish equivalent of the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau, the German Werkbund and the Viennese Secession. The common denominator of these movements was the ambition to develop a new concept of beauty based on the creative essence of humankind. This comprehensive study, containing a wealth of information not previously available in English, focuses on all aspects of modernismo. Insightful essays discuss the geographic focus of modernismo, Catalonia and its vibrant capital city, Barcelona, and its historical and social context. Architecture was greatly influenced by modernismo, and various practitioners — Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch — developed personal styles based on patterns inspired by nature. Painting, sculpture, and music were equally affected by the times, moving away from academicism and toward spontaneous and personal creative impulses. All essays are extensively illustrated with spectacular color photographs, showing modernismo's most important buildings, such as Gaudí's Sagrada Familia and Palau Güell; intricate furniture, stained glass, and jewelry; graphic design, notably periodicals and sheet music; and a portfolio of paintings.

The New York Times

This more comprehensive survey of Gaudi and his wildly experimental contemporaries -- with tongue-twisting names unfamiliar even to some specialists, like Joan Hervas Arizmendi, Juli Batllevell i Arus, and Lluis Muncunill i Parellada -- is extraordinary by any standard. The art direction, regrettably uncredited, dramatically captures the extravagant eruptions of fantasy that made Modernismo the most outre of the diverse international approaches to the free style of circa 1900. — Martin Filler

Borja de Riquer i Permanyer is a professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Like the other authors, he has written extensively on the period of modernismo in Spain.