"Barcelona & Modernity: Picasso, Gaudi, Miro, Dali" -- one visitor called it the most ambitious show she has ever seen at The Cleveland Museum of Art. I think she is right!

The exhibition does not officially open until October 15th, but I had the chance to attend a special preview "Fiesta" complete with tapas and Spanish wines. New Director Timothy Rub and Curator William Robinson were there to introduce the show to the 300+ attendees who were all eager to have a look inside the Museum again.  No one seemed disappointed that there were plenty of works by artists other than the big four included in the title. Though the names of many of the artists in the show were unfamiliar to most of the visitors, their works were so extraordinary they fit seemlessly with the works of the famous masters.

Three hundred and fifty objects, an exhibition that large might be overwhelming, but somehow its not -- its dazzling! When you enter the exhibition one of the most prominent works is a painting titled "Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu on a Tandem (End of the 19th-century) (1897), Nearly life size, the double portrait/self-portrait announces that in Barcelona both art and lifestyles are modern. When you turn around and scan the first galleries you realize you are surrounded by  large scale masterpieces. The galleries are organized chronologically and thematically and this works very well to tell the incredible story of the art scene in Barcelona from 1868-1939. When looking at the Modernist furniture in one gallery a woman commented that she had been to Barcelona and seen the exterior of many of the great buildings there, but this exhibition gave her a better sense of what the original interiors looked like. On this opening night the surprise hit was the architectural models, nearly one in each gallery, visitors seemed to gravitate to them. Antoni Gaudi's puzzling upside-down string and sandbag model for the Sagrada Familia church inspired the most questions.

Don't put off seeing Barcelona & Modernity because you will want to see the show more than once to take it all in.