MUCH, too much for my taste, is being said about Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. It shows how easily the masses are led by publicity, that Bilbao, in the heart of Basque country, is enjoying a wave of tourism. People come to see this new, striking building. They stand in the hot Iberian sun waiting to get in because the design fails to provide any shade for the waiting throngs. Bilbao may be north of New York, and both are Atlantic ports, but Bilbao is hotter. Inside, the structure gets in the way and is all too visually obvious; doesn't Gehry understand the principle of the cantilever?
Bilbao is Basque country, but it is surrounded by Catalonia and is Spanish for all the separatist activity. The great architect of Spain, specifically Catalonia, is Antonio Gaudi. Perhaps the most curvilinear architect (Bruce Goff and John Lautner can give him a chase) of his time, His masterpiece, the Cathedral of the Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family) in central Barcelona is now heading to completion under a furious construction schedule. Nearby in Western Barcelona is the Parc Guell. This reveals Gaudi at his most colorful and curvaceous. This is what Catalonia and northern Spain is all about. The bright sun demands bright colors.
The only color in Gehry's Guggenheim comes from reflections on the unnaturally highly polished titanium sheets in which the building is clothed. Already it is showing stress and unwanted coloration.
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Simply put, Gehry is Gaudi without the gaudy. |
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