Barcelona triomfant

This book is a monumental achievement. The accompaniment to an exhibition held between October 2006 and June 2007 in both Cleveland and New York respectively, Barcelona and Modernity is much, much more than a simple catalogue. This tome is an exhibition in and of itself; it is beautifully presented and comprehensive—the concretization of a fine museum-going experience with value added. Such is the book's balanced and informative approach to the subject matter that it will undoubtedly withstand the test of time and thus serve as both an indispensable resource and as admirable proof to what the organizing directors rightly identify as having been the "first comprehensive attempt to introduce the American public to the vitality of Catalan modernism" (x). Were that all museum catalogues of such quality and breadth.

Since 1992, the touchstone English-language reference on the Catalan capital has been Robert Hughes's Barcelona (1992). While the Australian writer's bestselling work now has some distinguished company in the form of Barcelona and Modernity as well as other academic studies, the fact that he is here accorded pride of place as author of the foreword is a classy touch.¹ Hughes's brief introduction is personal and heartfelt and sets just the right tone for the subsequent exploration of the aesthetic history of a city that has brooded, exploded, captivated, and suffered throughout its modern period. That in his comments Hughes projects beyond the book's ostensible temporal frame and cites the influential group of young Catalans who, in the 1960s, began Barcelona's modern day renaissance, only underlines the vital importance of the seventy-one year period encompassed in these pages. His matter-of-fact style suits Barcelona and Modernity's subtext: that Catalonia need not shy away from proclaiming its importance as a cultural hotbed. What is more, when, after detailing the city's neglect during Franco's dictatorship, Hughes states simply that "this time the good guys won" (xvii). His words serve as a piercing reminder that no matter the extent of the problems facing Barcelona today, the city's varied aesthetic legacy can and should serve as a cultural inspiration for continued innovation and artistic engagement.

Barcelona and Modernity's "second" introduction, written by William H. Robinson and Carmen Belen Lord, is more utilitarian but no less appealing. To them falls the challenging task of acquainting the reader with a region of the world that has often been obfuscated by stereotypes regarding Spain. They also undertake the all-important work of outlining what exactly Catalan modernity entailed, particularly vis-à-vis the series of economic and cultural processes that dovetailed to varying degrees with the rebirth of Catalan political aspirations. Their overview is concise and succeeds in communicating the way that art and politics overlapped in Barcelona as the cultural recuperation evident in the Renaixença took on different, more cosmopolitan valences in the forms of modernisme, noucentisme, and the contemporaneous avant-garde movements that resulted in even more "isms" and –ismes appearing on the scene. As with Hughes's piece, this prologue takes the reader up to the twenty-first century, thus situating the dynamics of a century old movement as part of a continuum that includes the cultural stasis endured by Catalonia during Franco's long dictatorship and the renewed push for more autonomy in recent years.

With the introductory apparatus out of the way, Barcelona and Modernity begins in earnest its task of presenting the Catalan capital and its aesthetics to the reader through a series of short essays, none of which extends beyond a few pages in length. Each piece is illustrated with works from the exhibition and the quality of reproduction in this book is excellent. The nine chapters proceed chronologically from the mid-nineteenth century to the fall of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The first section, "Rebirth: The Catalan Renaixença," is the book...