112 / 344
106
& hols 10am–2.30pm; €4;
T
934 262 089,
W
www.fundaciobarcelonaolimpica.es).
It’s a fully interactive experience,with lots of Olympic memorabilia and sports gear
on display, plus sporting videos and an audiovisual presentation, but even so is
probably one for hardcore sports fans only.
Fundació Joan Miró
Montjuïc’s highlight for many is the
Fundació Joan Miró
(Tues–Sat 10am–7pm,
July–Sept until 8pm,Thurs until 9.30pm, Sun & hols 10am–2.30pm; €8, exhibi-
tions €4, price includes audio-guide;
T
934 439 470,
W
www.fundaciomiro-bcn.
org), possibly Barcelona’s most adventurous art museum and certainly its most
attractive. The impressive white modernist structure is set in lovely gardens
overlooking the city, and it lies just a few minutes’ walk from either the Olympic
stadium or the Montjuïc funicular and cable-car stations.
Joan Miró
(1893–1983) was one of the greatest of Catalan artists, estab-
lishing an international reputation while retaining links with his homeland.
He had his first exhibition in 1918 and subsequently spent his summers in
Catalunya and the rest of the time in France, before moving to Mallorca in
1956, where he died. His friend, the architect Josep-Luis Sert, designed the
building that now houses the museum, which comprises a permanent collec-
tion of paintings, graphics, tapestries and sculptures donated by Miró himself
and covering the period from 1914 to 1978. Aside from the permanent
collection on display, the Fundació sponsors excellent temporary exhibitions,
film shows, lectures and children’s theatre, while summer music nights
(usually June and July) are a feature every year. Young experimental artists
have their own space in the
Espai 13
gallery. There’s also a
library
, with
books and periodicals on contemporary art, a
bookshop
selling posters and
a
café-restaurant
(lunch 1.30–3pm, otherwise drinks, pastries and
sandwiches) with outdoor tables on a sunny patio – you don’t have to pay to
get into the museum to use this.
The collection
The
paintings and drawings
are instantly recognizable, among the chief links
between Surrealism and abstract art. Miró showed a childlike delight in colours
and shapes and developed a free, highly decorative style – one of his favourite
early techniques was to spill paint on the canvas and move his brush around in
On the Miró trail
When you’ve seen one Miró, well, you start to see them everywhere in Barcelona,
whether it’s T-shirts for tourists or branding for businesses. There’s the large ceramic
mural on the facade of Terminal B at the airport, for a start, or the circular pavement
mural at Plaça de la Boqueria that catches your attention every time you stroll down the
Ramblas. He designed the starfish logo for the Caixa de Pensions savings bank (there’s
one splashed across the Caixa Forum arts centre on Montjuïc) and also the España
logo on Spanish National Tourist Board publications. There’s his towering
Dona i Ocell
(Woman and Bird) in the Parc Joan Miró, near Barcelona Sants train station, while a
smaller
Dona
stands with other Catalan works in the courtyard of the Ajuntament (city
hall). In many ways, it’s a Miró city, whatever Picasso fans might think.
MONTJUÏC
|
The Olympic area