Josep Lluís Sert / Architecture in Dialogue with Art

Spanish architect and city planner Josep Lluís Sert, a native of Barcelona, has had an incredible impact in the world of house construction and city planning. A disciple of Le Corbusier (whom he also briefly worked for), his style remained rationalist, always ensuring that form follows function. 

As the Dean of Harvard Graduate School of Design in the 1950s, he initiated the world’s first degree programme in urban design. In the late 1930s, he created the Master Plan for the City of Barcelona. But even though he liked for his houses and city projects to be logical, he was also in intimate dialogue with some of the most gifted artists of his time. When he designed the Spanish Republic’s pavilion at the Paris Exposition of 1937, he invited his friends Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Alexander Calder to decorate the space. Picasso’s contribution was Guernica, which also became the focal attraction of Sert’s design. This was an early example of how Sert as an architect would engage in dialogue with artists when designing buildings. 

Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, Palma

Ever since Joan Miró was born in 1893, he had a lifelong dream: to live and work in Mallorca. His mother was from the island and as a child, he would often travel by ferry from Barcelona, where he lived, to visit his grandmother in Sóller. The dramatic landscape of the island, together with the soft warm light, helped him discover the visual images and symbols that would become characteristic of his work.

In 1929, he married Pilar Juncosa, also native of Mallorca. Together, they planned for a future on the island and in 1956, the dream could finally be realised. He lived here until his death in 1983. In the (at the time) small town of Son Abrines, in the Cala Major district just outside of central Palma. 

Next to the place where he would build his home and atelier, he purchased a rural house, called Son Boter, which allowed him to have a cluster of studios. This is also where he created almost a third of all his works. In Son Abrines, Miró could focus on his work without being disturbed, and the time he spent on the island was a period of incessant and disciplined working on paintings, sculptures and other creative forms of expression. After Miró’s death, his widow donated the land  where the museum currently stands as well as finance the construction of the foundation. In 1992, it was opened to the public.

The foundation consists of three separate buildings that together are considered one of Mallorca’s most important architectural oeuvres. Most famous of the three is the Sert Studio, designed by Josep Lluis Sert, who was also a close friend of Miró. It’s joined by Son Boter, the 18th century house that was already present on an adjacent lot, as well as the Moneo Building which is the headquarters of the foundation, designed by Rafael Moneo. 

The Sert Studio was designed to fit with the terrain’s hillside terraces. It was created through dialogue between the architect and the artist, where Miró explained his professional needs and Sert translated this into his plans for the building. An important demand from Miró was that work and storage areas were kept separate, so that he could keep his distance from any artworks that had already been completed. Sert also had to make sure that the space could contain large paintings, including entire murals, such as his Cincinnati mural. 

The materials used were traditionally Mediterranean, such as stone and clay. Particular attention was given to colour, especially the south façade (facing the sea), where white concrete is contrasted with blue, red, yellow and terracotta woodwork. The building is not to be considered a case to fill with art. Instead, think of Sert’s stance, deliberately blurring the lines between design and art: “Architecture itself can become a sculpture.” 

Due to Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, Sert had been forced to seek exile in the US, and so he and Miró kept in touch through letters, which is also how they developed their plans for the construction on Mallorca.

If Sert Studio represented contemporary and novel ideas on how to construct buildings on Mallorca, Son Boter was based in the typical and traditional. It was bought three years after Sert Studio was completed, through the prize money that Miró was awarded by the Guggenheim International Award, given to him for the two murals that he created for the Paris UNESCO building. Son Boter was however not only another space for Miró to create, it also offered further distance and shelter from what he described as “bothersome neighbours”. 

Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence

It doesn’t matter how many times you have already visited Fondation Maeght, every time brings the same feeling of wonder. The site’s organic interplay between art, architecture and nature creates an almost metaphysical experience. The reason for this harmonious atmosphere can perhaps be found in its history.

Opened in 1964, Fondation Maeght was the result of a collaboration among some of the leading artists of the 20th century, including Georges Braque, Joan Miró and Alberto Giacometti. Since then, it has been considered France’s most important art foundation, and is among the world’s leading cultural institutions. 

The name behind the foundation belongs to the couple Aimé and Marguerite Maeght, prominent publishers and art dealers, and a central part of the international artistic community of the mid-20th century. Together, they established the foundation, with help from some of their closest friends, who also happened to be among the most lauded of the modern artists. When it opened (through a ceremony arranged by Charles de Gaulle’s Minister of Culture André Malraux), it was France’s first private art institution.

The Maeghts found inspiration for the project in the way that many American art foundations – including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Barnes Collection and the Phillips Collection – had been set up in previous years. Aimé Maeght had for a long time been Miró’s gallerist and editor, and had followed the construction of the artist studio that Sert had designed for Miró. Impressed with the result, Maeght asked Sert to design the buildings for the foundation. 

The Maeghts worked closely together with Sert in designing the space, ensuring that the building would be the best possible to exhibit modern and contemporary art in all its forms, as well as a place for creative people to meet and exchange ideas. Other artists helped with the project as well; Miró created a sculpture labyrinth and Giacometti made a sculpture for the court.

The main building is actually only 850 square metres, but its outline is planned in a decidedly humanist way, open and welcoming, with rooms in varying sizes and surprising shapes. The informal atmosphere is enhanced by the patios, the white colours of the walls and an intricate play with natural light, all signature elements of Sert’s architectural vision.

The art collection of La Fondation Maeght is one of the largest of modern art in Europe, and includes seminal pieces by Alexander Calder, Wassily Kandinsky, Barbara Hepworth, Germaine Richier and Raul Ubac.

The foundation also has an extensive reference library – with more than 35,000 titles – available to art historians, curators and students, with focus on books and journals specialising in modern and contemporary art.

 Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona

Ever since its inauguration in the summer of 1975, Fundació Joan Miro overlooks Barcelona from the hillside of Montjuïc. Similar to both Fondation Maeght and the sibling foundation on Mallorca, this is a place where the visitor can spend many hours, perhaps even a whole day, as the building is designed as an interplay between architecture and art. You can oscillate between studying the artworks and relaxing on the rooftop or on the small terrace, visit the shop or stop for lunch in the restaurant or enjoy a coffee in the shaded courtyard. 

Many of the artworks were donated by Miró himself, including the famous “Hermitage of San-Juan Huerta”, “Street Pedralbes”, and “Portrait of a boy”. There is also a space dedicated to promoting the work of young experimental artists, initially an idea by Miró but translated into architecture by Sert. 

At the time of its construction, twenty years after the opening of the Palma foundation, the museum was considered a major event in Barcelona, as it was the beginning of what today is a popular cultural infrastructure in this neighbourhood. Visitors can easily walk between the Miró museum and the Mies van der Rohe pavilion, on the way stopping at the imposing National Art Museum of Catalonia, or continuing onward to the cultural centre CaixaForum. Sert’s museum building reflects his rationalist inspiration; ratios based on the Modulor are blended with an architectural language present in Mediterranean Culture. 

What the visitor will mostly clearly pick up on is the building’s volumetric composition that internally provides a dynamic of levels while also creating spacious, double height rooms with indirect natural lighting, perfect for displaying sensitive artworks. It also allows a series of outdoor patios that connect elements between rooms while providing transparency for the entire space. You can glimpse into other parts of the building through windows, staircases and wide hallways that interconnect different parts with one another. 

The use of spatial continuity is a key element in the building, combined with flexibility between spaces. More than anything, Sert’s inspiration in Le Corbusier is evident in both the functional structure and rational style, while also respecting the soft, warm Mediterranean heritage. 

Similar to the Mallorca site, the professional and personal friendship between Miró and Sert is evident, as architecture and art appear to be engaging in respectful dialogue through the way that the building allows space for the artworks to be presented, while also letting the building itself have its own unique personality. Two years after it was built, it won the “Council of Europe Museum Prize” and “Twenty-five year award” in 2002. Sert’s white-painted space is today home to more than 14,000 Miró pieces.