Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona

MACBA – Richard Meier Designed Museum of Contemporary Art

Nov 12, 2009

A must-see destination on the cultural map of Barcelona is the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) designed by architect Richard Meier.

California architect Meier is best known for his updated International Style modern design, which lends itself superbly to the exhibition of contemporary art in Barcelona.

Contemporary Art and Architecture in Barcelona

Located in the Raval, the area west of the Ramblas rapidly regenerating itself from the “wrong side of the tracks” to an up and coming artistic and nightlife centre, MACBA stands as a beacon of the cutting-edge cultural richness of the Catalan capital.

It has been a project long in the making, with the idea for a contemporary art museum in Barcelona first mooted in 1959 by art critic Alexandre Cirici. The city’s avant garde artistic tradition, nurturing talents like the young Pablo Picasso, seemed to cry out for a dedicated centre for contemporary art exhibition. After years of planning and collecting, architect Richard Meier was selected by the Barcelona city council and building commenced. The Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona — MACBA — opened to the public in 1995.

Richard Meier Museum Design

The MACBA building bears all the hallmarks of Richard Meier’s classic take on International Style modern architecture. Clean lines and sparklingly fresh white planes abound, with the principle elevation on Plaça dels Angels delineated in strong glass horizontals anchored at one end by a tower whose abstract curves recall the simple eloquence of a Jean Arp sculpture. Emerging from the dark, cramped, Medieval Raval alleyways to behold this temple of light, space and modernity is a striking visual experience.

The contrast is equally powerful at night, with the glass curtain ablaze from the warmer inside lighting and the white exterior planes floodlit to dazzling brilliance. The excellent program MACBA Nits offers discounted admission at night, as well as the chance to enjoy a view of the boisterous nightlife of Plaça des Angels from above the fray at MACBA’s stylish rooftop bar.

Inside, the central hall is dominated by a wide zig-zagging ramp ascending to the gallery floors along the front wall of glass. Each floor conceals a deceptive depth of exhibit space, designed to offer flexible arrangements of cleverly maze-like galleries.

MACBA Collections

The MACBA permanent collection is extensive, diverse and dynamic, encompassing works of contemporary art from about 1950, from all over the world in all manner of media. Within this cosmopolitan framework, MACBA puts a natural and uncontrived emphasis on Spanish and particularly Catalan artists. Celebrated local icon Antoni Tapies is well represented, as are other Catalan artists such as Francesc Torres and Jordi Cerda.

This synthesis of global and local is itself an important characteristic of contemporary art and culture; and is neatly mirrored in the ease with which the International Style modernity of Richard Meier’s Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona weaves itself into the fabric of a city comfortable with contradiction.

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