Spain 2016 - Madrid, rain and Reina Sophia

Rain was in the forecast and I could hear it raining in the night (I actually have a window in this hotel, I did not in Seville). It was still raining this morning and it rained all day. Seemed like a good day to go to a museum. So I went to Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sophia. I warn you, I bought the Paseo de Arte (Ticket that gets me in all three of the main art galleries) so the blog is going to be full of art photos while I am here. As rain is in the forecast for the next 3 days it seemed like a good idea.
The Prado is the big one but Peggy (a hooking friend) and internet research both pointed to Reina Sophia, so that's where I started.

I walked down Calle Atocha and ate breakfast in a bakery. There are far more bakeries in Madrid than in Ayamonte or Seville. The croissant was not as good as those in Ceret (last year) but it wasn't bad.

It's in a modern looking building right opposite the train station.

I got there at about 10 a.m. and there was no lineup. The number of people built during the day and was also dependent on the area in the museum. Picasso's Guernica was a hot spot (almost, but not quite, like trying to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre). Because of the weather I had decided I was going to spend the whole day here and I took it easy. There are of course paintings and sculptures but also books, videos, poetry and movies.
I am going to just post some of the works that caught my eye:

Salvador Dali, "Girl at the window", 1925. I was attracted to this and surprised to find it was a Dali. I associate him with such weird stuff (which of course is also here).

Obviously I was not the only person taken by this. In the gift shop you can get posters, shirts, playing cards and puzzles, all with this image on them.

In contrast, here is another Dali. "Face of the great masturbator". 1929.

And another. "The invisible man" 1929-32. So weird.

But look at this detail from the painting above, boy the guy could paint!

Hard to explain why some paintings appeal to me more than others. In this it was the scalloped shadows of the tile roofs and that it was just a plain street, nothing fancy about the buildings. Benjamin Palencia. "Landscape". 1926.

This, "The sleeping factory". 1925

and this, "The joy of the Basque countryside". 1920. are both by Daniel Vasquez Diaz, hung side by side. They were part of a display looking at the depictions of Spain after the war.

There was not as much sculpture as paintings but I think that is probably true in terms of production too. Alberto Sanchez. "Maternity". 1930.

"Woman's Head" Pablo Picasso. 1909

There was some fascinating vintage photography. "Panorama from Triana, Seville" Anonymous. 1880/1890.

Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa. "Portrait of Sonia de Klamerry, Countess of Pradere". 1913. Unusual portrait of a countess, I wonder what she, or the count, thought of it.

It was OK to take photos throughout most of the museum, "sin flash", I was told whenever I asked, but there were some areas, mostly the temporary exhibits, in which you were not permitted to take any photos.
Two areas stand out for me. One was a temporary exhibit called:

and photos were permitted.

It was about Ulises Carrion. To quote the booklet "A key figure in Mexican conceptual art.....artist, editor, curator and theorist of the post 1960s international avante garde. ... he actively participated in most of the artistic disciplines of his time......co-founded Other Books and So, in Amsterdam, dedicated to artists publications.....developed a wide range of theoretical work....precursors to more recent theories of the digital world"
He did some fascinating things
- in one project he started rumours and documented the effects and then created a video about the process.
- in another, a video called "Death of the Art Dealer", he took a section of a movie and videoed himself holding a TV, showing the movie, and he moved with the characters. So when the character on the screen moved to the right, he walked to the right carrying the TV. It wa fascinating to watch as my brain kept slipping backwards and forwards, from the story being told on the TV to the TV moving, to the whole idea. Sorry, I can't do it justice.
- he sent out a proposal to 300 artists that they create a mail stamp, and send it to a particular printer indicating where  (in an 8 page book) they wanted the stamp printed. This would then result in a collaboration without anyone knowing, until it was finalized, what it would look like.
Here's some more of his creations;

"Untitled (Numberings)".

Close up. I kept wondering how he chose the numbers, shapes, missing numbers. Had to move on.

"Syllogisms". 1977.

Close up, it was a series of (sort of) mathematical formulae.

The other attraction to this exhibit was that all his videos were in English with Spanish subtitles. It was much more accessible to me because of that.
At the entrance to the museum you can purchase an English audio guide but I thought that would actually hinder the experience, so I didn't get one. In each of the rooms there is a page of explanation available in a number of languages and I found that was enough information for me to get the gist of the room.
In an area on contemporary Spanish art I found the other fascinating piece;

"Yarns". Zaj. This is made up of over a thousand pieces of yarn in hundreds of colours each tied to bells.

I kept wanting to take pictures of it

from all different angles

and I wasn't the only one, the cameras were out in this room. The write up implied that it was supposed to be walked through, to add sound to the sensory experience, but it was roped of.

I took 100s of photos today but feel this is enough for a post. The building itself is quite interesting as there is a relatively new addition which has a restaurant, auditoriums, temporary exhibition space

and rooftop terraces, which are in turn, roofed.

This new building and a library create a partially roofed courtyard.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed my day there, I spent about 6 hours, it is complicated to get around. There does not seem to be a logical flow between exhibition areas and the new building does not connect to every floor so there were times I had to take the elevator down, walk through the building and take the elevator up 2 floors to get to the next space ("you can't get there from here" seems to have been part of the plan).
As I am probably not going to be down this side of the hill again I decided to go across to the train station to see what I had missed when I arrived yesterday,

the tropical gardens

complete with turtles. It's a nice place to sit if you have to wait for a train.

Impressive

building too.

Walking up hill, in the rain, to get back to my hotel, I decided to just get supper and then I could crash if I wanted to.

Went into an unassuming little bar

Salad, white asparagus and omelette. With a glass of Rioja it was just what I needed.

Spain 2016 - Madrid, first impressions.

Crappy nights sleep and out to the train station way too early. There is nobody around at 8:30 am on a Sunday in Seville, except the other woman waiting for the bus who was going to run her first 5km race and was excitedly nervous, so her English was great fun.
Breakfast at the train station and then just wandered and looked at the shops til 10a.m. when the track was identified.

Santa Justa is a pretty slick train station and

the trains are pretty slick too.

Had to go through x-ray and security before getting on. I told them about my knife (for cutting up apple and cheese) and they said OK and waved me through. (Security at the Archives yesterday took it away and returned it when I left).
These high speed trains are amazing, within 5 minutes we were speeding through the countryside at 150 km/hr. Later in the trip I noticed we were doing 250 km/hr. We were in Cordoba in 45 minutes and Madrid took 2 hours and a half. Its a smooth ride but you can't look at anything close, because you are going too fast, have to look at things that are at least in the middle distance.
Madrid train station was huge and I just found a taxi and gave him the address, the hotel was quite close (just a 6 Euro ride) but I didn't want the stress or the dragging the suitcase along.
Settled into my room, the Hostal is on the 3rd story but at least it has an elevator, and then went to the tourist office and walked the streets trying to get my bearings.
Supper was, I'm embarrassed to say, Indian (Chicken Korma) but I couldn't find a decently priced Spanish style restaurant and I felt like Indian. Now in my room early and hoping for a good solid nights sleep. There will be a lot of walking tomorrow and one difference I have already noticed, Madrid has hills!

Spain 2016 - Seville, Parque Maria Luisa, Plaza de Espana, Archivo Genral de Indias

As I said in the last post I was feeling a little nauseous so walked along by the river for a while.

Nice and peaceful, watercraft of all types.

A waterfall to the right and, in tiles, a map of the area showing the complexity of sailing up to Seville from the Atlantic, through the marshes and the delta.

I walked up from the riverside near this building, part of the 1929 Exposition. I ate my apple here and tried to sketch it, failed miserably, you wouldn't think those Moorish windows would be that difficult.

The building next to it said it was the centre for Contemporary Art so I had to take a look. Walked in and the man at the desk gestured for me to go right in. Most of the works on display were photography or mixed medium using photography as a base. Most used architecture or construction as the topic.

By Mark Wallinger.

By Carl Andre. This one didn't quite fit with the others but I thought it a nice commentary.

The building itself was lovely. This was the courtyard.

From here I walked into the Parque Maria Luisa which was developed for the 1929 Expo. I didn't wander around to the different countries buildings as I had seen them on the bus tour that I took with Nicola. I just walked down the park towards Plaza de Espana, walking off to the right or left whenever I saw something interesting.

Definitely on the horse and carriage route!

Ceramics (more on that later)

Waterfowl.

Here we go, birds again, Christine is going to get abusive.

Now really, how can you resist swans.

Lots of water features, flowers, arbors covered with grapes or wisteria, huge trees and naturalized woodland areas, it was all lovely but the most interesting thing, to me, was .....

all the little girls in white getting their pictures taken by professional photographers (and their accompanying group of parents, grandparents etc). Walking from photo op to photo op holding their white dresses up like little brides. Perhaps Confirmation pictures.

Then I noticed that there were a fair number of little boys, also in white, cream or pale blue, usually in a slightly military style also getting photographed professionally.

They were getting some really cute shots, it was the perfect setting.

I took tons of photos of fountains and pathways, beautifully laid out and sort of formally, informal, relaxing. I could understand why so many families were spending their Saturday afternoon there.

The park ends at Plaza de Espana which was also built for the 1929 Expo.

Heavy into the ceramic here

and water, for reflections,

for fountains

and just for fun.

All the way around the inside arc of the building are benches with the different cities, a map of their location and the coat of arms. Its a quick tour of Spain.

I was beginning to drag. It was about 2 and all I had had since breakfast was an apple. I decided to treat myself to a meal in a restaurant. I found one that was a little off the beaten track, a couple of blocks from the Cathedral, and I settled at a table in the sun.

The usual tomato dish with grilled tuna and balsamic reduction. I didn't think I would be able to finish it all and would have to figure out the Spanish for "doggy bag" but I didn't have any trouble. In fact I had room

for dessert. Finally, a real creme caramelle, or flan as it is called here.

I had hoped that this would fortify me but found that it just made me sleepy (could have been the wine). Anyway I moved on and not wanting to go back to bed I went instead to the Archivo General de Indias. I had read on Tripadvisor that it was free and often had exhibitions. "It is the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Philippines." from Wiki.

The building is impressive

Lots of marble, columns and rooms lined with shelves holding boxes of all those rare documents.

The exhibit was on the last voyage of the Frigate Mercedes, but no photography was permitted.

It was entirely in Spanish and I was amazed at how much of it I could piece together but I have since looked some of it up, to make sure I have got my facts right. It seems that four Spanish frigates were making their way back to Spain from South America, in 1804,  loaded with goods, when, off the coast of Portugal, they were stopped by 4 British ships. Britain and Spain were in a rare time of peace but Britain did not want this wealth to fall into French hands (Napoleon). When the Spanish refused to surrender the goods, they were attacked and the Mercedes exploded, sank and 263 men, women and children drowned. The British ships escorted the remaining Spanish ones to England. I was glad none of the Spanish people in there with me knew my British heritage, I was embarrassed.
Then in 2007 the "treasure hunting" firm of Odyssey Marine Exploration found the wreck and took the "treasure" back to Tampa, Florida. Subsequently there was a lengthy court case and the U.S. courts ruled that the archaeological finds all belonged to Spain and had to be returned.This included various articles from the ship and the sailors belongings, which were on display here, and 500,000 silver and gold coins (I assume that the display is just a representation). Because it is a library there were lots of documents on display from both the early 1800s and the ones related to the court case. But there were also models, computer generated battle sequences and movies. It is very surprising to me that thousands of people were standing in lines to pay to go into the other sites in Seville and there were just a few of us in The Archives, for free.