UPF Art Track suggests a 33 piece puzzle

We have picked 8 UPF Art Track outstanding pieces (marked with letters) and each one dialogues with 3 of the 24 artworks (numbered) we have chosen for you. Ready to match them?

A
Untitled (front), by Antoni Tàpies.

Painted on the front and back of the canvass, as well as the side of the frame, in a approach reminiscent of the Flemish tradition.

A
Untitled (back), by Antoni Tàpies.

B
Dipòsit de les Aigües, by Josep Fontserè and Antoni Gaudí.

A former water tower in the shape of a hypostyle hall reminiscent of the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul. A labyrinth of arches rising 14 metres high offers a spectacular visual play on the history of architecture. It currently houses a large reading room of the UPF Library.

C
Untitled, by Antonio Saura.

Saura's nervous, tortured, slightly schizoid strokes, here recall that other image by him, of Goya's dog. The animal's solitary desperation is equally reminiscent of another famous dog, this time by Miró.

D
Homage to Pompeu Fabra, by Josep M. Subirachs.

Work created in 1968, to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Pompeu Fabra, when Barcelona City Council proposed to various artists that they did a painting in “Homage to Pompeu Fabra”.

It bears the slogan “Never give up the task or hope”

E
The first big oak of Lost Valley, by Alexandre Hollan.

Hollan's work combines the subtlety of Easten art and the desire for formal experimentation of the avant-garde.

F
Perseverance, by Lita Cabellut.

According to the artist herself, she chose this image because "the character has determination, strength, and inspires intelligence and shyness."

G
The stairway of knowledge, by Alfonso Alzamora.

It consists of 36 cubes arranged in the form of a stairway with eight levels, an allusion to Ramon Llull’s philosophical concept of the ‘ladder of knowledge’. Alzamora is also the author of the sculpture Homage to Isaac Albéniz and Alicia de Larrocha, located in the Auditori of Barcelona.

H
Untitled, by Frederic Amat.

The letters of our university's name seem to emerge in the midst of a strange flowering, of a vegetation made of the smooth black of Indian ink and of the types of printing.

1
Unknown, Julius Caesar, Escaping from the Island of Pharos, Swims to a Boat while Holding a Letter, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Manuscript illustrated with miniatures from the 15th century.

2
Cistern Basilica, Istanbul.

It’s the largest of the 60 ancient cisterns built in Istanbul during the Eastern Roman era. It’s close to the Orthodox Basilica of Hagia Sophia, nowadays a mosque. It was built in a few months, in the year 532, using 336 Roman columns from pagan temples in Anatolia, most in Corinthian style.

3
Fra Angelico, The Annunciation, Museo di San Marco, Florence.

One of the first great masters of the Italian Renaissance. His work was exclusively religious, painted in fresco and oil.

4
Bruce Graham, Skidmore, Ownings & Merrill (SOM), Willis Tower, Chicago.

Skyscraper formerly known as the Sears Tower. It is the second tallest building in the United States.

5
Francis Frith, Sakkarah Pyramids from the Northeast, Harvard Art Museums, Boston.

The stepped pyramid of Djoser is the first stepped pyramid to be built in ancient Egypt. The building is an ambitious evolution of the ancient mastabas, where the pharaohs and prominent members of the royalty, the nobility and the clergy were buried.

6
Egon Schiele, Small Tree in Late Autumn, Leopold Museum, Vienna.

Austrian painter. He was the contemporary of Gustav Klimt and one of his outstanding students. Along with Kokoschka, Kirchner, Klee or Kandinsky, he is one of the great exponents of the early twentieth century Expressionism.

7
Anton van Dyck, Marchesa Geronima Spinola, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

Flemish painter specialized in portraits. His work had a great influence on the great English portrait painters of the eighteenth century (Gainsborough, Reynolds, etc.).

8
Jackson Pollock, Number 1A, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

American artist, leading exponent of the abstract expressionism movement from the New York School and a major figure of the action painting and the dripping technique. He is considered one of the most important painters of the twentieth century.

9
Filippo Brunelleschi, cloister of the Carthusian Monastery, Florence.

Great Florentine architect of the Italian Renaissance. His most famous works are all in Florence.

10
Anton van Dyck, Anna Wake, Mauritshuis, The Hague.

Flemish painter specialized in portraits. His work had a great influence on the great English portrait painters of the eighteenth century (Gainsborough, Reynolds, etc.).

11
Cuneiform tablet, private letter, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

One of the first known writing systems. It was created by the Sumerians around 3150 BC. The signs were drawn on clay boards that were baked in order to harden and preserve them.

12
Parthenon, Athens.

Temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena Parthenos, whom the people of Athens consider their protector. It was built in the 5th century BC and it is the oldest monument on the Acropolis of Athens. Its architects were Ictinos and Callicrates, supervised by Phidias

13
Jan van Eyck, Lucca Madonna, Städel Museum, Frankfurt.

Flemish late Gothic painter and one of the best artists of the Flemish Primitives group for his innovations in the art of portrait and landscape by using optical techniques and sophisticated miniaturism.

14
Takeuchi Seihō, Deer, from the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac series, National Museum of Asian Art, Tokyo.

Japanese painter of the nihonga genre. He has been considered the master of the pre-war painters in Kyoto.

15
Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.

One of the oldest churches continuously used as a place of worship in the world. Its structure is built over the cave that tradition marks as the sacred birthplace of Jesus.

16
Leonardo da Vinci, Star of Bethlehem and Other Plants, Royal Collection Trust, London.

Mythical Tuscan Renaissance artist and a humanist of universal spirit, he was at the same time a scientist, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, urban planner, naturalist, musician, poet, philosopher and writer.

18
Ziggurat of Ur, Iraq.

Temple of ancient Mesopotamia in the shape of a stepped tower. Nestled next to the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur, in present-day Iraq. It was erected as a place of worship of the god Nanna, during the Obeid period.

19
Diego Velázquez, Infanta Margarita in a Blue Dress, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Painter of the Spanish Golden Age and one of the greatest artists in the history of painting. He excelled in portraits of great realism and psychological penetration, among others those of the Spanish royal family, being himself a painter in the court. His technique inspired Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet.

20
Francisco de Goya, Neither More Nor Less, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Aragonese painter and engraver. His work includes oil and mural painting, engraving and drawing. In all these facets he developed a style that started Romanticism and modern art.

21
Pablo Picasso, Guernica, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.

One of the most iconic paintings of the twentieth century and possibly the pinnacle of Cubism, created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

22
Li Wentian, Couplet, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sidney.

A nineteenth century Chinese artist and historian who left a clear mark on the history of Chinese calligraphy.

23
El Greco, Portrait of a Man or Self-Portrait, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Painter, sculptor and architect of Greek origin who worked mainly in the Kingdom of Castile in the final period of the Spanish Renaissance. He deeply influenced contemporary painting (from Cézanne, Modigliani or Beckmann to Chagall, Giacometti or Pollock).

24
Cave painting, Altamira.

The Altamira cave is a natural cavity in the rock preserving one of the most important pictorial and artistic cycles in Prehistoric times.

Here is one of the different possibilities of linking the proposed artworks:

A: 8-13-24
B: 2-12-15
C: 20-21-23
D: 3- 9-17
E: 6-14-16
F: 7-10-19
G: 4- 5-18
H: 1-11-22


Needless to say, we have got unlimited options of connecting the works as the genealogies of art are pretty intricate!

Thanks a lot for entering the alluring maze of art through UPF Art Track!