The third millennium

Artist: Josep Maria Subirachs

Title: «The third millennium»

Year: 2004

Media: acrylic on board

Edition: unique piece

Size: 60 x 90 cm

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Subirachs often resorts to the inclusion of architectural elements in his works to express all his symbolic language.

In this work, he tells us the history of humanity and its technological advances up to the present day, in the middle of the third millennium. To do so, he uses, in a symbolic way, the different types of arch that have been used in architecture throughout history.

In the foreground, we find prehistory, represented by a trench or ditch in the ground as a reference to the dark age. During the first millennium is when the semicircular arch that we find in Romanesque churches began to be used. Between the year 1000 and 2000, the second millennium, the semicircular arch was replaced by the lancet or pointed arch that we can see in Gothic cathedrals. Already in the third millennium, the use of reinforced concrete made it possible to create arches with right angles. Finally, we see the full moon, witness to all these technological advances, which also adds an element of mystery to the whole.