Retrato do autor

Gijs Van Hensbergen

Autor(a) de Gaudi : A Biography

9 Works 375 Membros 10 Críticas

About the Author

Gijs van Hensbergen lectures on architecture and is the author of Art Deco, A Taste of Castile, and the acclaimed biography Gaudi

Obras por Gijs Van Hensbergen

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Críticas

 
Assinalado
Murtra | 6 outras críticas | Apr 19, 2021 |
 
Assinalado
Murtra | 6 outras críticas | Feb 24, 2021 |
As I was reading the biography of the genius catalan architect I was overwhelmed the feeling, that he must be one of the ones whose art I just love but IRL I would have slap him in the face after 5 minutes. Very interesting to read how someone being a nationalist and bigoted catholic became the father one of of the most original architecture.
 
Assinalado
TheCrow2 | 6 outras críticas | Jul 24, 2019 |
This superb book about Pablo Picasso's most famous painting begins with his annual summer visit to Spain with his family in 1934, the year that would be the last he would spend in his homeland. That fall an uprising by left wing miners in Asturias was brutally repressed by General Francisco Franco, with the resultant death of approximately 4,000 miners and their supporters. Continued clashes between the Nationalists and the Republicans led to civil war in Spain beginning in July 1936, and early the following year the Nationalists led by Franco was making inroads into Northern Spain, although his troops met with strong resistance in the País Vasco (Basque Country). Franco enlisted the support of Hitler's Luftwaffe, which conducted a terror bombing raid on the city of Guernica (or Gernika in Euskera, the Basque language), the spiritual center of the Basque Country, on Monday April 26, 1937, the traditional market day when roughly 10,000 residents and visitors would shop in open markets throughout the city. The bombing campaign, which was designed to break the spirit of the Euskadi resistance, left over 1,600 people dead, and after news and photos of the tragedy reached Paris Picasso quickly drew sketches and completed his masterpiece painting, in a period of only five weeks, doing so in time to have it displayed in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris Exposition that summer.

This book next describes the painting's impact during World War II, within Europe and in the United States after it was transported there for safe keeping shortly before German troops invaded France. At the same time, the author describes Picasso's political activities and artistic work in France during the war years, and his decision to become a member of the French Communist Party after the war ended, which caused the US government to bar him from entry during the Red Scare and anti-communist hysteria during the 1950s, when his great work continued to be displayed there.

Guernica's impact on major postwar artists is also discussed at length in this book, along with the political situation in Spain and the US, followed by its return to Spain in 1981 once the country had instituted a stable democracy, and its installation into its permanent home in 1992 at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, where I saw it for the first time last summer.

Guernica is a superb and comprehensive exploration of Picasso's greatest and most influential painting, which I would recommend to anyone interested in Picasso and his work, especially those of us who are fortunate to have seen it. I'll attend a talk at the Edinburgh International Book Festival next month which will feature two authors that have written new books about Guernica and Picasso's political activism, and I'll undoubtedly pick up and read those books as well.
… (mais)
½
5 vote
Assinalado
kidzdoc | 2 outras críticas | Jul 31, 2018 |

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Patricia Antón Translator

Estatísticas

Obras
9
Membros
375
Popularidade
#64,333
Avaliação
3.9
Críticas
10
ISBN
40
Línguas
9

Tabelas & Gráficos