Friday, March 17, 2006

Museo Nacional Reina Sofia - Guernica and other modern art

Thu, March 16 - I think I'm going to stick to the jet lag for a little while. If I am to survive Madrid's night life, I better be able to stay up late! I peeled myself out of bed at 1pm, I think I fell asleep around 4:30am yesterday...

I was out and about by 2:30pm. Looking for a place to make copies of Angela's apt keys, so I don't have to keep taking hers. And I ran into the one thing I really dislike of European's life style: the lack of "jornada continua"... the continuous work day. *Every* store unrelated to food closes between 2 and 5pm! And on Sundays everything is closed. *sigh* On the other hand, Sundays most museums are open to the public for free. But I imagine it'll be a mob house.

I gave up being productive for the start of my day, and headed to my first museum. I am leaving the Prado for Sunday, to go with Angela. I went to the Reina Sofia instead, which currently hosts Picasso's Guernica. I read that it was moved from the Prado against the artist's wishes. My father used to have a small reproduction on ceramic tile in his bedroom. It was one of the paintings he liked the most. I remember he told me he had seen it in the Prado. It's a bit of a personal journey, to follow his steps like this.

The museum is an old building with a modern annex attached to it. Unremarkable if it wasn't for 2 huge transparent elevator shafts up front. Gives a nice view of the plaza. The Guernica is on the second floor, in a room dedicated to Picasso's work. I arrived at the same time as a group of students from France and another from Italy.. of course the viewing area for that one piece was mobbed. So I didn't feel like elbowing people to stare at it. I walked by, peeked through, and moved on. A bit anti-climactic.

I discovered a couple of other modern artists with interesting styles: Pablo Gargallo, Jacques Lipchitz, and Lucio Fontana. And I got to bask in the glow of Dalì's art. I love his style. It has the extreme realism skills I utterly admire, with the fantastic twist of imagination. Definitely one of my favorites.

As I walked through the recent acquisitions, all I could think of was "My art should be in here. I should be a full-fledged artist, produce a consistent body of work, expose it, make it my life. Modern art doesn't require skill. It just requires a personality, a concept behind it. Why am I holding back? Why can't I do this?" In part I hope to answer this question through this trip. Find a focus and an expression. Figure out what I want to say. And find a way to say it.

Here are my first "artsy" pics. The museum said no pics inside... but since I didn't take pics of the art, I figured it'd be ok ;)

And a random pic of the day: a tiny public restroom at the edge of a busy plaza.

PS) These first pictures are dedicated to Pedro, who paid for dinner in exchange for pics of interesting things I found along the way :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You saw Guernica.

I'm so jealous. :)

Anonymous said...

Long time no comment from Lila :( I was in Florida. But your mention of Dali reminded me of the Salvador Dali Museum near where I stayed down there. It is fabulous!