During the years after the September Revolution of 1868, Barcelona experienced tremendous industrial growth and emerged as the most politically and culturally progressive city in Spain. "Barcelona and Modernity" examines this remarkable seventy-one-year period, when Barcelona also reigned as one of the most dynamic centres of modernist art and architecture in Europe. Focusing on the Catalan Renaixenca, Modernisme, Noucentisme, avant-garde movements of the early 20th century, and artistic reactions to the Spanish Civil War, essays by an extraordinary international team of scholars offer new insights into the work of such Catalan artists as Antoni Gaudi, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, and Salvador Dali, among others, by setting them in context with the art of their teachers, colleagues, and rivals. With approximately 350 works in a variety of media - painting, sculpture, photography, furniture, decorative arts, and architectural design - this intriguing book also explores how Catalan artists derived inspiration from local traditions while contributing their own innovations to international modernism. Broader in scope than any previous treatment of the subject, this book is sure to alter popular perceptions of Catalonia and become a fundamental text for years to come.

About the Author

William Robinson is Curator of Modern European Art and Jordi Falgas is Cleveland Fellow in Modern Art, both at the Cleveland Museum of Art.