Gaudi y Picasso

Spanish artists run amok here: Goya, El Greco, Velázquez, Dali, Miro...it's a really big list.  But two painters seem to scream Barcelona - Gaudi and Picasso.  Today we visited the Parc Güell and the Picasso museum.

Industrialist tycoon, Eusebi Güell, met Gaudi when he was a struggling artist and fell in love with Gaudi's work.  So much so that he became Gaudi's patron for life.  For. Life.  Güell totally pissed off his children by giving Gaudi so much money.  When Güell died he asked his kids to be sure to use some of his money to pay for a crypt in the Sagrada Familia.  His kids said, no...

Gaudi designed a house (and a park) for Güell.  It's the one famous for the mosaic bench that curves around the main entrance.  

They're crazy beautiful!

Gaudi's work kind of reminds me of Dr. Seuss...it's fantastical, but totally functional.  It innovative, ingenious, and almost totally created from recycled materials.  He was way ahead of his time.

After the park, we had some lunch...mmmm...paella!

And then we visited the Picasso museum.  He once said that as a boy he painted as a man, but as a man he learned to paint as a child.  Truer words were never spoken.  His early work is realist (and wonderful):

a self portrait (at 17)

so delicate.

Simple, beautiful drawings.

And then there are the pigeons...

The collection was totally surprising because it included mostly works that are not what we're used to seeing...

Let me tell you...the art around here is just fabulous!!