La fiesta catalana, 1999

About this work:

Gerhard Hofmann celebrates the concesion of the Gold Medal to Barcelona by the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) with the creation of an attractive suite Elegy to Barcelona, published exclusively by Círculo del Arte. The subjects of the etchings are not really descriptions, but really recreations teeming with fantasy and colour, in which they combine, as in a photographic zoom, mixed with a kaleidoscope of the different emblematic architectural and landscape elements of the city. The engraving La Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Church) shows the monumental cathedral bathed in a magic, all-enveloping light. La fiesta catalana (Catalan Fiesta) alludes to the frenzied popular festivities of la Mercè in the Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona, and is full of giants, &#171fatheads&#187 and the human castle of the &#171castellers&#187. In the engraving El puerto de Barcelona (The Port of Barcelona) the monuments and sculptures of the surrounding area are depicted: the monument to Columbus, the charming giant prawn by Mariscal, the famous Pop sculpture The Face of Barcelona by Roy Lichtenstein, the Mapfre tower, the Hotel Arts and the golden fish in the Olympic Port created by Frank Gehry. Nor would the series be complete without an etching devoted to the most popular corner of Las Ramblas de Barcelona, the Boquería market and its surroundings full of flowers, birds and trees. Finally there is El Paseo de Gràcia. In honour of the architects of Catalan modernism, we see the splendid façade of the casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudí and, to its left, the wonderful building by Amatller de Puig i Cadafalch. To this suite we add the first engraving by Gerhard Hofmann featuring Barcelona. This is the work Barcelona, from 1996, which is a fantastic mosaic depicting a vision of the whole of this city of dreams.