219 - ANTONI GAUDÍ (Reus or Riudoms, Tarragona, 1852 - Barcelona, 1926).

ANTONI GAUDÍ (Reus or Riudoms, Tarragona, 1852 - Barcelona, 1926). "Gaudí in the foreground", 2020. Unique, limited and numbered edition. Edition of 4998 copies. Editorial Artika. Measurements: 38,5 x 29 cm (books): 45,5 x 35,5 x 18 cm (box). Sculpture case containing two books about Gaudí, published by Artika in 2020. The case reproduces in relief one of the "warriors" at the top of one of the chimneys of "La Pedrera". Inside is the book "Gaudí in the foreground" and "Studies", the latter containing articles about the artist by important experts such as; the architect and director of the Gaudí Chair, Juan José Lahuerta; the architects Jordi Faulí and Chiara Curti; the art historian, Joan Aicart; and Dr. Mireia Freixa, who makes a detailed study of the plates. The maximum representative of Catalan modernism and, therefore, of Spanish modernism, Gaudí is one of the most outstanding architects and decorators in European history. He studied architecture at the Escuela de la Llotja and the Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, where he graduated in 1878. With his first major commission, the Casa Vicens, he began to acquire renown and to attract increasingly larger commissions. In 1878 he exhibited at the Universal Exposition in Paris a showcase made for the Comella glove shop. This piece, with its modernist and functional design, impressed the industrialist Eusebi Güell, a key figure in Gaudí's artistic biography. In fact, Güell was, besides being a great friend of Gaudí, his main patron, and commissioned some of his most outstanding works, such as the Park Güell. Today, Gaudí's designs for furniture and decorative arts can be admired in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the MOMA in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, as well as in his House-Museum in Park Güell.