Run through Retiro this morning. It´s grey and cloudy -- where did the summer go?
Met up with Isabel and the culta ladies at the Reina Sofía for a tour of the ¨vangaurdista¨ artists. The first half of the 20th century was filled with violence, war, shattering of illusions for Spain and the art reflects this loss of conventional notions of beauty and harmony. Started off with a Picasso piece called something like ïn memory of the spaniards who died for france.¨ Isabel pointed out the cubist elements (profile of a face), the expressionist colors and brushstrokes (rouge, bleu, blanc de francia) and the symbolism (laurel wreath of victory, among others). Next a series of papers with words and red paint, obviously suggestive of spilt blood. Lots of references to cadavers, blood, cruelty (I found the 3 red, bloody heads of lambs by Picasso particularly disturbing) throughout these first few rooms.
Then we came to a room with several watercolors depicting specific churches, buildings and towns plundered and destroyed in warfare. They were powerful but more striking was the more allegorical piece by Salvador Dalí: a painting of a Greek temple, emblem of Western culture and values, with columns toppling one by one and the form of a skull occupying the central space at the top of the temple facade.
We also talked about how Franco built so many big monumental buildings after the war to prove how Spain was recovering and developing so modernly.
Kadinsky
Bold colors and geometrical shapes -- reminiscent of prehistoric art, man´s attempts to impose order on the chaos of the world!
Really cool big black and white paintings that changed depending on where you stood in relation to them. I liked one that, when you stood at the opposite end of the room, the painting looked like a view of a river way far below from the perspective of very tall cliff edge.
Sculptures by Chillida. Impression of bird in flight -- wonderful contrast of concave and convex, pointed and blunted surfaces.
There was a room showing part of Rear Window by Hitchcock. I was all excited about the movie and Isabel laughed because she says everyone enters the room excited by the movie and too distracted to notice the Rothko painting hung on the side in a dimly lit corner. The painting is yellow with an ochre rectangle and a red rectangle. Very calming for sure.
In the final room we came across some work by Clifford Still and also several Spanish artists who had been inspired by his giant bold paintings. One artist represented Spain with 2 giant intrusive blocks of red and black, they seemed to fight for dominance on the canvas. The black represented dictatorship and oppression while the red represented Spanish passion, so explained the artist. He completed the painting in the US, and apparently this is the image he found himself confronted with when he thought of his homeland.
After the museum, Isabel drove me to Retiro and I walked home. Looks like I missed the 10 minutes of snow that descended upon the city this morning! Home in time for comida and then I met up with Annie in Sol to shoot some footage for our final project video in Spanish. It was really fun to use the flip because I can almost just pretend it´s a phone and then be very stealthy about capturing footage. When Annie arrived, we went over to Plaza mayor, Palacio Real, Plaza de Villa, Opera and the restaurant where I ate on Tuesday and she on Wednesday. Annie decided she wanted to try to the famous calamares bocadillo in Plaza Mayor so I got some film of the cook frying the squid and Annie taking a first bite haha! The calamari were very good.
Satisfied with the filming, we returned to the institute for tea and to collect our subsidies before Spanish class. We talked about condition, future verb forms, woohoo, and then I caught the metro home. Consuelo was just on her way out with the carneval disfraz -- costume -- she´d been sewing for her grandson. I had a lovely dinner of salad, beets and tortilla before packing up and taking the metro to the airport. Off to Lisboa!! I´m so excited to be going somewhere a bit warmer because it´s supposed to snow in madrid this weekend, ahh!
Met up with Isabel and the culta ladies at the Reina Sofía for a tour of the ¨vangaurdista¨ artists. The first half of the 20th century was filled with violence, war, shattering of illusions for Spain and the art reflects this loss of conventional notions of beauty and harmony. Started off with a Picasso piece called something like ïn memory of the spaniards who died for france.¨ Isabel pointed out the cubist elements (profile of a face), the expressionist colors and brushstrokes (rouge, bleu, blanc de francia) and the symbolism (laurel wreath of victory, among others). Next a series of papers with words and red paint, obviously suggestive of spilt blood. Lots of references to cadavers, blood, cruelty (I found the 3 red, bloody heads of lambs by Picasso particularly disturbing) throughout these first few rooms.
Then we came to a room with several watercolors depicting specific churches, buildings and towns plundered and destroyed in warfare. They were powerful but more striking was the more allegorical piece by Salvador Dalí: a painting of a Greek temple, emblem of Western culture and values, with columns toppling one by one and the form of a skull occupying the central space at the top of the temple facade.
We also talked about how Franco built so many big monumental buildings after the war to prove how Spain was recovering and developing so modernly.
Kadinsky
Bold colors and geometrical shapes -- reminiscent of prehistoric art, man´s attempts to impose order on the chaos of the world!
Really cool big black and white paintings that changed depending on where you stood in relation to them. I liked one that, when you stood at the opposite end of the room, the painting looked like a view of a river way far below from the perspective of very tall cliff edge.
Sculptures by Chillida. Impression of bird in flight -- wonderful contrast of concave and convex, pointed and blunted surfaces.
There was a room showing part of Rear Window by Hitchcock. I was all excited about the movie and Isabel laughed because she says everyone enters the room excited by the movie and too distracted to notice the Rothko painting hung on the side in a dimly lit corner. The painting is yellow with an ochre rectangle and a red rectangle. Very calming for sure.
In the final room we came across some work by Clifford Still and also several Spanish artists who had been inspired by his giant bold paintings. One artist represented Spain with 2 giant intrusive blocks of red and black, they seemed to fight for dominance on the canvas. The black represented dictatorship and oppression while the red represented Spanish passion, so explained the artist. He completed the painting in the US, and apparently this is the image he found himself confronted with when he thought of his homeland.
After the museum, Isabel drove me to Retiro and I walked home. Looks like I missed the 10 minutes of snow that descended upon the city this morning! Home in time for comida and then I met up with Annie in Sol to shoot some footage for our final project video in Spanish. It was really fun to use the flip because I can almost just pretend it´s a phone and then be very stealthy about capturing footage. When Annie arrived, we went over to Plaza mayor, Palacio Real, Plaza de Villa, Opera and the restaurant where I ate on Tuesday and she on Wednesday. Annie decided she wanted to try to the famous calamares bocadillo in Plaza Mayor so I got some film of the cook frying the squid and Annie taking a first bite haha! The calamari were very good.
Satisfied with the filming, we returned to the institute for tea and to collect our subsidies before Spanish class. We talked about condition, future verb forms, woohoo, and then I caught the metro home. Consuelo was just on her way out with the carneval disfraz -- costume -- she´d been sewing for her grandson. I had a lovely dinner of salad, beets and tortilla before packing up and taking the metro to the airport. Off to Lisboa!! I´m so excited to be going somewhere a bit warmer because it´s supposed to snow in madrid this weekend, ahh!
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