Friday, May 30, 2008

Passion Facade, Sagrada Familia, Barcelona



Both images: details from the Passion (west) façade of Anton Gaudi's Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, Spain. As Wikipedia says: " The Passion façade is especially striking for its spare, gaunt, tormented characters, including emaciated figures of Christ being flogged and on the crucifix. These controversial designs are the work of [late 20th-century Catalan sculptor, Josef Maria] Subirachs". Naturally I've taken a (little) bit of artistic licence in depicting the sculptures, but I've tried to render the poses faithfully.

At the time I was quite struck by the Cubist/Picasso-like form of the sculptures, as well as resemblance to the figures on Scott Sinclair's artwork for Hot Water Music, especially Caution. There's simultaneously something very cool and very expressionate about the geometric figures.

Pen and pencil: 1. June 2006; 2. June 2007.


Photographed in July 2004.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Gabba
I see you've sketched the forms from the other side of the sagrada that I saw first! I came out of the metro seeing the back (or the front??) side of it and only saw these after walking around.
I read in a pretty rubbish guide book that people weren't happy with these sculptures because they weren't very 'Gaudi'
It's true they're totally different from the other parts of the cathedral but I think the whole mishmash of architecture and design adds to the whole place.
Thanks for all your comments on my blog by the way!

gabbagabbahey said...

from what I remember, the Sagrada doesn't have enough sides (yet) - you're bound to get confused!

I think the controversy about these statues is that they were added so late (1987 I think) and in a quite different in style to Gaudi... but the whole mishmash is what it's all about.

you're welcome about the comments - they're what makes the interweb go round!

blend77 said...

These are quite cool Gabba.
You still drawing a lot these days?

gabbagabbahey said...

not so much. I find a lot of less constructive things to do with my time... well, that and blogging!

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