Tuesday March 29 was a cloudy, cooler day with a high of 16C. Alano and I were both tired from our amazing food tour on Monday. With the subsequent walk to the El Born neighbourhood and back, we did a record 26,000 steps. We decided to take it a bit easier today and hang in the general neighbourhood. We walked through Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia to a street with an olive oil shop that Paula, our guide from the food tour had recommended.
 |
| Walk through Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia |
 |
| Oli Sal--- an amazing olive oil shop |
 |
| Lots of regional olive oils- organized by brand with different sizes |
We bought some oil and then saw Forn de Pa Fortino, a bakery that has been around since 1925. Fabulous looking bread and treats.
 |
| Inside of the bakery |
 |
| Outside |
We stopped at the Mercat de Llibertat to get a few things for dinner at the apartment tonight.
 |
| Another entrance to the market |
 |
| Wonderful vegetables |
 |
| This fish shop had been recommended |
 |
| Dried fruits and nuts |
It is a wonderful market-- not too big, but lots of choice and excellent produce, meats and fish.
We passed an interesting bookstore called la Memoria on the Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia.
 |
| Lots of neat stores/bars/cafés around the square |
We dropped the food off at the apartment and then went to Casa Milà-La Pedrera to see the Giorgio Morandi exhibit. We had visited La Pedrera in 2015, but this was a large temporary exhibit with a separate entrance.
 |
| Walking up the Gaudí staircase |
 |
| Another view |
The exhibit entitled:l
Morandi. Infinite Resonance takes a retrospective look at the work of Italian painter and engraver Giorgio Morandi (Bologna, 1890-1964). Morandi did not identify with any one group of painters but his first paintings were influenced by Cèzanne and Cubism and he also had a short relationship with the Futurist painters of his generation. However, from about 1920, he began a solo career in which he developed his own unmistakable style, "characterized by a pictorial language of great purity and elegance marked by harmony, austerity, lightness and silence".
 |
| Autoritratto 1925 |
 |
| Paesaggio 1913 |
 |
| Natura morta (Still life) 1914 (early Cubism influences) |
For Morandi, the use of reiteration was key, and the same set of objects was revisited by the artist time after time in paintings and etchings. The exhibit brought together a significant selection of paintings, drawings and prints from various museums and private collections in Europe. More than 100 works are displayed.
 |
| Natura morta 1920 |
 |
| Natura morta, 1919 |
 |
| Natura morta metafisica, 1918 |
Morandi often painting flowers. There was a section in the exhibit entitled:
Flowers without Scent. |
| Flori, 1942 |
 |
| Flori 1952 |
 |
| A collection of objects painted by Morandi |
There was a room of his prints that were amazing. He was a master of the technique of etching and was appointed professor of printmaking techniques at the Acccademia di Belle Arti di Bologna in 1930.
 |
| Natura morta con compostiera, bottiglia lunga e bottiglia scannellata, 1928 |
 |
| Zinnie in un vaso a strisce 1929 |
 |
| Natura morta con nove oggetti, 1954 |
The exhibit had the following quote from Morandi:
I have always focused on a much narrower range of subjects than most other painters, so the danger of repeating myself has always been much greater. I think I have managed to avoid this danger by devoting more time to designing each of my paintings as a variation of one or other of these few themes.
 |
| Natura morta 1928 |
 |
| Natura morta, 1960 |
 |
| Natura morta, 1956 |
There were two paintings displayed beside each other. The still life on the left was dated 1946 and the one on the right was dated 1936. These were part of a number of paintings that focussed on different graduations of white.
 |
| Very similar paintings- 1936 (right) and 1946 (left) |
 |
| Natura morta, 1942 |
It was an excellent exhibit and showed beautifully in the Gaudí building. Morandi was a master of form, light and colour.
 |
| Alano descending the stairs from the exhibit |
 |
| Poster in the gift shop |
We then decided to explore the streets running off of Passeig de Gràcia. We first found the wonderful Baulard bakery and got two very small ensaïmadas to eat right away.
 |
| Fabulous bakery |
Then just a few minutes away we ran into another Praktik Hotel called Praktik Bakery. It houses another branch of the Baulard Bakery where baking is done on site. The reception ares of the hotel is part of the bakery café.
 |
| Outside of the Praktik Bakery Hotel |
As we had already had a treat, we just got a coffee and sat in the café area.
 |
| Coffee at the Praktik Bakery Hotel |
 |
| Lots of great treats at the Praktik |
We wandered around some more in the L'Eixample 'hood. More wonderful architecture and design.
 |
| Lots of beautiful buildings |
 |
| This building had an armed guard! Perhaps a government building. |
 |
Il Lustre Collegi de L'Advocacia de Barcelona-lawyers' association
|
 |
| A corner with a number of great modernist buildings |
 |
Another beaut!
|
We stopped to look all the courtyard of the Basílica de la Concepció (14th century church with additons in the 15th and 16th centuries).
 |
| Lovely courtyard |
 |
| Another view |
 |
| Another painted building |
We went to visit the Cotton House Hotel on a street close to the Praktik Garden where we spent our first night this trip and where we spent the only night we were in Barcelona in March 2020. We had our dinner that evening at the Cotton House before we flew out of Barcelona. The Praktik Garden had a relationship with the Cotton House and we were the only diners along with one other couple at the Hotel which was closing down the next day due to the pandemic.
 |
| Outside of the Cotton House Hotel |
The Hotel is located on the former headquarters of the Cotton Textile Foundation, and is an emblematic 19th century building in the neoclassical style. It is a landmark building in Barcelona. It was sold in the middle of the 20th century to the Cotton Producers Guild which had its headquarters there. It underwent an intense refurbishment process by a group of hotel promoters which culminated in its opening in January 2015. The famous spiral staircase built in 1957 was preserved.
Tomorrow, March 30, will be our last full day in Barcelona before heading on to Sète, France on March 31.
Comments
Post a Comment