A detail of 'Woman and Bird' showing Miró’s classic, limited palette

Is It a Bird? Is It a Penis? Or a Mushroom Woman in a Moon Hat?

Dubbed a host of filthy names because of its phallic shape, this well-known sculpture’s original title, ‘Mushroom Woman in a Moon Hat’, is perhaps the least known of all. Miró’s last public work is monumental, best enjoyed up close on a summer’s evening when the late Mediterranean light sets the trencadís aglow.

The measure of a shell

Unsurprisingly, for this installation of cobble-embedded neon, Italian artist Mario Merz chose the Fibonacci sequence, a ratio occurring naturally in … More

Anarchy on a classical plinth

Like a lone night watchman—as he was in his youth—the statue of Joan Salvat-Papasseit (1894–1924), one of Catalonia’s preeminent poets, … More

Saint Paul in the Field

While most of the Barcelona art I write about is free, I sometimes include exceptions, and this is one. A … More

Stargazing down at the port

They could be a pair of stevedores on deck, each marooned on their tiny pontoon. But they seem content to … More

The capital A’s sharp lines erupt from the vegetation like a futurist manifesto

Walk through a poem in Horta

Poetry, theatre, prose, sculptural works and even experimental film: his output was prodigious in all these media yet Joan Brossa … More

With its whimsically comic air, Gambrinus brings a sense of fun to the Moll de la Fusta

Dancing Prawn

Many’s the town that cheerfully flaunts some huge and dreadful object on its loftiest hilltop. Made of concrete or fibreglass, … More

Impressions in a concrete garden

You have to take the term “gardens” in its official name with a pinch of salt when you first see … More

Caged in the rain

If you cross over Barceloneta’s Passeig Marítim in the direction of the sea, you will come across another of the … More

No longer an alley cat

If you want to see Fernando Botero’s art for free in Barcelona, head for the Rambla del Raval, where it’s … More