Antoni Gaudi Quotes

Discover our collection of Antoni Gaudi quotes and learn more about this extraordinary Catalan architect who...

Famous Quotes by Antoni Gaudi

Anything created by human beings is already in the great book of nature.

Artists do not need monuments erected for them because their works are their monuments.

Because of this, originality consists in returning to the origin.

But man does not create... he discovers.

Color in certain places has the great value of making the outlines and structural planes seem more energetic.

Copiers do not collaborate.

Everything comes from the great book of nature.

Form does not necessarily follow function.

When i went to take the measurements, the ground was totally covered with the little yellow flowers that i used as the ornamental theme in the ceramics. I also found a lush palm, and palmettes, fused in metal, cover the grid of the gate and the door to the house.

Describing development of Casa Vicens

Gothic art is imperfect, only half resolved; it is a style created by the compasses, a formulaic industrial repetition. Its stability depends on constant propping up by the buttresses: it is a defective body held up on crutches....The proof that Gothic works are of deficient plasticity is that they produce their greatest emotional effect when they are mutilated, covered in ivy and lit by the moon.

In the Sagrada Familia, everything is providential.

Light achieves maximum harmony at an inclination of 45°, since it resides on objects in a way that is neither horizontal nor vertical. This can be considered medium light, and it offers the most perfect vision of objects and their most exquisite nuances. It is the Mediterranean light.

Men may be divided into two types: men of words and men of action. The first speaks; the latter act. I am of the second group. I lack the means to express myself adequately. I would not be able to explain to anyone my artistic concepts. I have not yet concretised them. I never had time to reflect on them. My hours have been spent in my work.

My client is not in a hurry.

Discussing La Sagrada Familia

My good friends are dead; I have no family and no clients, no fortune nor anything. Now I can dedicate myself entirely to the Church.

Nothing is art if it does not come from nature.

Nothing is invented, for it's written in nature first.

Originality consists of returning to the origin. Thus, originality means returning, through one's resources, to the simplicity of the early solutions.

Originality is a return to the origin.

Paraboloids, hyperboloids and helicoids, constantly varying the incidence of the light, are rich in matrices themselves, which make ornamentation and even modeling unnecessary.

The creation continues incessantly through the media of man. But man does not create... he discovers.

The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people.

The great book, always open and which we should make an effort to read, is that of Nature.

There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature. Therefore, buildings must have no straight lines or sharp corners.

There is no reason to regret that I cannot finish the church. I will grow old but others will come after me. What must always be conserved is the spirit of the work, but its life has to depend on the generations it is handed down to and with whom it lives and is incarnated.

The straight line belongs to Man, the curved one to God.

Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator.

Tomorrow we will do beautiful things.

We own the image. Fantasy comes from the ghosts. Fantasy is what people in the North own. We are concrete. The image comes from the Mediterranean. Orestes knows his way, where Hamlet is torn apart by his doubts.

Quotes about Antoni Gaudi by Art Historians and Fellow Artists

For the first time since I had been in Barcelona I went to have a look at the cathedral--a modern cathedral, and one of the most hideous buildings in the world. It has four crenellated spires exactly the shape of hock bottles. Unlike most of the churches in Barcelona it was not damaged during the revolution--it was spared because of its 'artistic value', people said. I think the Anarchists showed bad taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance, though they did hang a red and black banner between its spires.

George Orwell on La Sagrada Familia, 1938

What I saw in Barcelona – Gaudí – was the work of such strength, such faith, of an extraordinary technical capacity, manifested during a whole life of genius; of a man who carved the stones before his eyes in well thought out pattern. Gaudí is the ‘builder’ of the turn of the century, a man adept with stone, iron and brick. His glory is seen today in his country. Gaudí was a great artist; only those who move the sensitive hearts of gentle people remain. But they are mistreated in the course of their lives, misunderstood or accused of sin toward the mode of the day. Architecture’s significance is shown when there dominates evidence of lofty intentions that triumph over all the problems in the line of fire (structure, economy, technique, utility). Thanks to interior preparation, architecture is the fruit of character – just that, a manifestation of character.

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier)