This is Hughes's monumentally informed and irresistibly opinionated guide to the most un-Spanish city in Spain. Hughes scrolls through Barcelona's often violent history, tells the stories of its kings, poets, magnates, and revolutionaries, and ushers readers through municipal landmarks that range from Antoni Gaudi's sublimely surreal cathedral to a postmodern restaurant with a glass-walled urinal. The result is a work filled with the attributes of Barcelona itself: proportion, humor, and seny—the Catalan word for triumphant common sense.
"Authoritative, carefully researched, and full of insights into the city's great heritage....There is no single volume in either Catalan or Spanish that approaches this book in scope or detail." —Washington Post Book World
Robert Hughes was born in Australia in 1938. In 1970 he moved to the United States to become chief art critic for Time, a position he held until 2001. His books include The Shock of the New, The Fatal Shore, Nothing if Not Critical, The Culture of Complaint, Barcelona, Goya, Things I Didn’t Know, and Rome. He is a New York Public Library Literary Lion, and was the recipient of a number of literary awards and prizes, including two Frank Jewett-Mather Awards. He is widely held as the most respected art critic of our time.
View titles by Robert Hughes
This is Hughes's monumentally informed and irresistibly opinionated guide to the most un-Spanish city in Spain. Hughes scrolls through Barcelona's often violent history, tells the stories of its kings, poets, magnates, and revolutionaries, and ushers readers through municipal landmarks that range from Antoni Gaudi's sublimely surreal cathedral to a postmodern restaurant with a glass-walled urinal. The result is a work filled with the attributes of Barcelona itself: proportion, humor, and seny—the Catalan word for triumphant common sense.
"Authoritative, carefully researched, and full of insights into the city's great heritage....There is no single volume in either Catalan or Spanish that approaches this book in scope or detail." —Washington Post Book World
Robert Hughes was born in Australia in 1938. In 1970 he moved to the United States to become chief art critic for Time, a position he held until 2001. His books include The Shock of the New, The Fatal Shore, Nothing if Not Critical, The Culture of Complaint, Barcelona, Goya, Things I Didn’t Know, and Rome. He is a New York Public Library Literary Lion, and was the recipient of a number of literary awards and prizes, including two Frank Jewett-Mather Awards. He is widely held as the most respected art critic of our time.
View titles by Robert Hughes
