Madrid, Part 5: Fine Art
Padraig Breathnach
Normally our appetite is satisfied by a half-day in a gallery, but we
made an exception in Madrid, partly because of how much interesting
stuff was available, and partly because the cool showery weather made
indoor tourism seem more attractive.
The Centro de Arte Reina Sofia houses modern work, mostly Spanish, and
temporary exhibitions of modern art. Much of the work on display was
challenging, and I failed to meet the challenge. To engage me, a work
needs to have some appeal to my aesthetic sense and should provoke in
me some thought or wonder (and "what the hell is that about?" doesn't
count). Those two requirements made it possible to "do" the gallery in
half a day. The best-known work there is Picasso's "Guernica", and I
did find it moving -- possibly aided more by some slight comprehension
of the horror he was trying to depict than by any particular
understanding of Picasso's composition and imagery. But what really
impacted on me was a collection of photographs of civil war Spain by
Robert Capa: they were beautifully-composed, high-contrast,
gut-twisting studies of ordinary people in extraordinary
circumstances. Almost seventy years on, Capa made me care what
happened to his subjects.
Next was the Palacio de Villahermosa, which has houses the
Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, recently expanded. There is much in the
original collection that I would happily give wall-space to,
especially the El Grecos with their distinctive palate and their use
of light; there was also a Murillo which I rather liked. The
additional Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza collection is wondrous. I felt
that the general character of the pictures was a bit chocolate-boxy,
but that is not a negative judgement: they were pleasing to the eye. I
was particularly taken with a couple of Sisleys, another couple by
Degas, and I fell in love with Corot's "Diana Bathing". The floor-plan
indicated that there were Rodin sculptures in a particular room. I
tend to like sculpture more than painting, and Rodin more than other
sculptors, so this should be a treat. But the room was empty, and I
felt cheated. Later, as we were about to leave, I noticed a sculpture
in a poorly-lit corner of the Atrium -- a Rodin. A quick check, and
there were three others, all stuck in corners. One in particular, of
Jesus and the Magdalene, was particularly powerful, beautiful, and
erotic; I was vexed that I could not walk round it and view it from
all sides. I was disappointed that a gallery which displayed the rest
of its collection so well failed to show its Rodins properly.
Although we had seen plenty of fine art, there were good reasons to
visit the Museo del Prado. First, it is probably the best-known
attraction in Madrid and, while we are not list-tickers, it would have
seemed perverse to tell people that we had visited Madrid and not
checked it out. Second, we had bought a combined ticket for the three
main galleries, and failure to exhaust it would mean that we did not
get our money's worth. Third, it was still cool and showery. We
decided that, if we were to preserve what little sanity remained to
us, we should be very focused and view a targeted selection of works,
and settled on those by Velasquez, El Greco (a must for me), and Goya.
The Velasquez selection did not grab me; the El Grecos were, to my
taste, less interesting than those we had already seen, and that left
Goya.
Goya! I had thought that our visit to the Prado Museum would be short,
but it not turn out to be so, because there were a lot of Goyas. The
quantity was impressive, and the variety was astonishing. The
best-known work is probably the one which enjoys the lengthy title
"The Third of May 1808: The Shootings on Principe Pio Hill", which is
widely reproduced. It really is a glorious work, depicting noble
defiance. (Only after we got home did I learn that the park where we
had spent an hour sitting in the sun -- almost the only hour of
sunshine during our visit -- was Principe Pio Hill.) Among the other
Goyas we saw were the pair "Maya Naked" and "Maya Clothed". For some
unfathomable reason, the former is the more often reproduced. Two
things struck me about the naked Maya: her eyes and her breasts (you
may count that as four, if you are so minded). The way she seems to
look out of the canvas is a little challenging, but also coy. I prefer
the assured bold gaze of Manet's Olympia (no, that's not in the Prado
Museum, it's in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris). Maya's breasts are
interesting: in the way that the did not seem to comply with gravity,
they looked to me like the result of a bad boob job. But the best of
the collection were the Black Paintings, Goya's own Goyas, painted to
express himself rather than to fulfil a commission or please a patron.
They seemed very personal, and invited one to see the dark side of the
human psyche. A bit dismal, but art has this in common with life: not
everything is pretty and happy.
We saw other art -- a special exhibition on Gauguin and the origins of
symbolism, and the collection at the Monasterio de las Descalzas
Reales, but I here resign my role as art critic. I was fully arted-out
by the time I got to them.
--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
Icono Clast
> photographs of civil war Spain by Robert Capa: they were
> beautifully-composed, high-contrast, gut-twisting studies of
> ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Almost seventy
> years on, Capa made me care what happened to his subjects.
I've known a great many members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade,
idealists in the '30s who remained so for the rest of their lives.
Last I heard, several years ago, there were three hundred survivors.
All of those I knew are dead. Probably most of the others are, too.
The youngest of the brigade was 19 in 1936. He died of cancer* in '89
at 72.
The USA unkindly libeled/labeled them "pre-mature anti-Fascists".
> I was disappointed that a gallery which displayed the rest of its
> collection so well failed to show its Rodins properly.
A visit to San Francisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor would not
disappoint you. We have a great collection of Rodins. He was friends
with one of our most prominent families (Spreckles [sugar]) and that
didn't hurt.
<http://search.famsf.org:8080/search.shtml?keywords=rodin>
A decade or two ago, Rodins from around the world were brought here
for a special exhibition. Wow!
> there were good reasons to visit the Museo del Prado.
That's an understatement if I've ever seen one! I spent three days
there. Loved it!
> Goya! . . . Black Paintings, Goya's own Goyas, painted to express
> himself rather than to fulfil a commission or please a patron.
> They seemed very personal, and invited one to see the dark side of
> the human psyche. A bit dismal, but art has this in common with
> life: not everything is pretty and happy.
And that's a große understatement!
_____________________________________________________________
A San Franciscan in 47.452 mile² San Francisco
http://geocities.com/dancefest/ http://geocities.com/iconoc/
ICQ: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/19098103 IClast at SFbay Net
*Everyone in his family got cancer, both parents, his brother and
sister. The sister beat it and is active and healthy. The parents,
however, didn't get cancer 'til they were in their nineties!
Bob Fusillo
"Padraig Breathnach" <padr...@MUNGEDiol.ie> wrote in message
news:8rf9v05m5jtl2hsfv...@4ax.com...
> Although we had seen plenty of fine art, there were good reasons to
Punch cartoon showed man and a woman going up the steps of the National
Gallery in London. She is dragging behind, saying " But it's not raining
THAT hard!"
rjf