ca. 1906. On display at , Barcelona In the Spanish histories of art, not only did a thriving school indeed exist in the main centers of Barcelona and Madrid, but its character was wide-ranging, bountiful, and in some cases astonishingly original. The painters who pushed Spain into the modern era in art are hardly familiar names outside Spain. Painters like
Bereute,
Santiago Rusiñol,
Casas,
Anglada,
Pinazo, Juaquin Mir Trinxet,
Regoyos, and many others, contributed to the character of Spanish painting at the dawn of the 20th century. The Catalan modernism is often understood as an equivalent to a number of
fin-de-siècle art movements, such as
Art Nouveau,
Jugendstil,
Secessionism, and
Liberty style, and was active from roughly 1888 (the First International Exhibition of Barcelona) to 1911 (the death of
Joan Maragall). The
Modernisme movement was centered on the city of
Barcelona, and is best known for its architectural expression, especially the work of
Antoni Gaudí, but was also significant in sculpture, poetry, theatre and painting. The earliest example of
Modernista architecture is the café "Castell dels tres Dragons" designed by
Lluís Domènech i Montaner in the "Parc de la Ciutadella" for the
1888 Universal Exhibition. It is a search for a particular style for Catalonia drawing on Medieval and Arab styles. Like the currents known in other countries as
Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Stile Liberty, Modern Style or
Sezessionstil,
Modernisme is basically derived from the English
Arts and Crafts movement and the
Gothic Revival. As well as combining a rich variety of historically-derived elements, it is characterized by the predominance of the curve over the straight line, by rich decoration and detail, by the frequent use of vegetal and other organic motifs, the taste for asymmetry, a refined aestheticism, and the dynamic shapes. Influential architects were
Antoni Gaudí,
Lluís Domènech i Montaner and
Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and later
Josep Maria Jujol and
Enrique Nieto. 1893 saw the formation in Barcelona of the independent
Colla del Safrá group including, more particularly, painters
Isidre Nonell i Monturiol and Joaquim Mir i Trinxet.
La Ilustració Catalana published on 10 March 1907: "Spaniards....made already comments....about the works of Domènech, Puig i Cadafalch, Sagnier, Gaudí and others ". By 1910,
Modernisme had been accepted by the bourgeoisie and had turned into a fad. It was around this time that
Noucentista artists started to ridicule the rebel ideas of
Modernisme and propelled a more bourgeois art. == History ==