Day 210 - Reina Sofia, Caixaforum, and the Jardin Botanical

Another major museum day... seems like all the major tourist cities in Europe include a heavy dose of museum time for visitors. But then I think about what I would show people in Los Angeles if they came to visit...and it'd be the Getty Museum and Griffith Observatory...and probably LACMA and MOCA...

I have a favorite spot for lunch already. I grabbed a bite yesterday as well as today, and I intend on going back tomorrow! The lunch wasn't spectacular, just a sandwich of some sort, but it's the desserts they make that are golden! I already have a favorite, called Rosquillas de Alcala, which is something like a hybrid between a mini glazed donut (coated with what i believe is marzipan) and turkish baklava. I don't need to gain any more weight, but I could eat a ton of these in one sitting.

Once my hunger pains subsided, I headed to the Caixaforum, a free museum that currently held a Eugene Delacroix exhibit and another called The Persistence of Geometry. The Delacroix exhibit contained artwork mostly borrowed from the Louvre and the Musee des beaux arts in France. I went to the Caixaforum in Barcelona as well, and both were free to enter. I didn't know too much about Delacroix, but I liked his style. It was very silky, the way he used his brushstrokes to create movement on his paintings, especially scenes depicting war battles or animal fights. The other exhibit was more modern art, with a lot of video and spatial exhibits. Some of the language on the walls were just too complex for me to really follow in explanation of the exhibit and its goals.

Across the street from Caixaforum was the Jardin Botanical, which was a huge enclosed garden full of various species of fruits, vegetables, and other plants. Since it was nearing winter, most of the vegetation was dying or falling off, so I suggest you skip this place if you visit in the cold months. There was a cool photo exhibition though, which presented some of the participants and winners of the Prix Pictet competition, fusing photography with sustainability to sent messages about the environmental problems we face in our world.

The last stop was at the modern art museum called the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. This museum is HUGE. The building had 4 floors of artwork in addition to an adjacent building in the back with an additional 4 floors of artspace, and there was an overabundance of artwork on showcase when I visited. Being the last museum of the day, along with the fact that there was so much art to cover, I really ended up just skimming everything, walking quickly through each room, There was plenty of Picasso, including his famous Guernica, and plenty of Dali and Miro as well. Most of it was famous European art, and it showed the chronological development of modern art from the early 20th century to the present. I wish I got an audioguide, but I was one Euro short of securing one, and they didn't accept credit cards!

For some reason, when I headed back to my hostel, the streets were crowded with people. It seemed like everyone was coming out of a concert or something, but it may be because it was Saturday, or maybe it was because it was so close to Christmas. Either way, I was a little testy with the crowd. Too much claustrophobia!

 Rosquillas de Alcala

Delacroix

Somewhere in America

Reina Sofia Museum

Salvador Dali

Day 206 - Caixaforum, MNAB, and the Fundacio Joan Miro

Another exhaustive museum day, but very enlightening to be exposed to so many varieties of art in this city!

The first museum I visited was the Caixaforum which is a free museum at all times. I believe all the art showcased is usually from the permanent collection of the Caixa Bank. There are 5 salons at the museum, which used to be an old factory, each showcasing a different exhibition. Today, only 3 of them were open for viewing. The first I visited was a collection of Impressionist art on loan from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. There was art from Renoir, Monet, Sisley, and a bunch of other artists. The second salon I visited was an exhibition on the Ballets Russes, a movement of ballet that was popular in Europe in the early 20th century. There was archived footage of some of the performances, as well as some artwork and costumes that were worn by the dancers.

I headed onto the next museum, which was nearby - the MNAC (Museu Nacional D'art de Catalunya). This museum housed an extensive collection of art ranging from Romantic to Gothic to Baroque to Modern Art. The Romantic section had huge murals on display in built-in church apses throughout the floor, along with a bunch of other religious Christian art. The Gothic section also had a lot of religious art, but more on furniture and altar pieces and less as huge murals. We saw more paintings in the Baroque and Modern sections, all in various styles that were popular throughout the decades - ranging from impressionism to neoclassicism to noucentisme to surrealism. There was one last temporary exhibition of a collection of lost camera rolls that were found in a suitcase that documented much of the Spanish Civil War. I briefly walked through this section since I was again getting restless...

Last and final museum of the day was the Fundacio Joan Miro, a wonderful exhibition solely of his art, again showing the changes in his styles throughout the years (surrealism to abstract to expressionism...), due to the changes in the artistic world, the political climate, and his own personal life. His style of art is very unique, similar to the uniqueness of Picasso, if that makes any sense. He developed a certain style of creating art that was recurrent through many of his pieces, including the use of stars, moons, sexual organs, eyes, snakes, and birds. It was pretty difficult to see some of the pictures he was drawing in his strange and abstract way, but the audio/visual guides definitely helped.

Going to three museums in one day is overload...Writing this entry was difficult because it's already so hard to retain all the information that I thought I'd remember when going through all the exhibits. It's a little frustrating, but I want to see as much as I can in my last few days here!

Caixaforum

Caixaforum - Impressionism Exhibition

MACBA - Romantic

Bartolome Bermejo -  Taules d'un retaule de Crist

Maria Fortuny - La Cicaria

Joaquim Sunyer - Les Germanes Ribas

Josep De Togores - Bust de Dona

Salvador Dali - Retrat del meu pare

Fundacio Joan Miro

Fundacio Joan Miro