Madrid: take two - going to be a lot of writing

I know this has been a long time coming but I was waiting on photos (my camera battery died on karaoke night and I didn’t take ANY of the city at all!) But, still only some photos of me in front of the palace so I will plough through and maybe add some in later.

So I housesat for Reg in La Latina for two weeks, and had the quietest holiday EVER until she came back with her sister, best friends and Susi from their roadtrip to Portugal. I spent everyday wandering the city, eating tapas and drinking huge amounts of coffee, and visiting every art gallery under the sun. There are MILLIONS in Madrid, and they are amazing. I love Madrid so much, I think I told you that last time, but have decided it is not the best city in the world to be alone. Or maybe I’m just not very good at not having people around, I don’t know. The language barrier was intimidating, but ok, and I kept trying to speak French (I guess in reaction to “this is not English.”) Almost two weeks was quite a challenge since I actually am a wee bit shy. It’s funny how different places let you travel alone. Kathmandu was easy, and London will let you dissolve into the city, but Spain is so lively and everything is centred around the social – Madrid isn’t built for an observer.

The weather was FANTASTIC the whole time, and I came back with a lovely tan that London summer had declined to give me. I read a dozen books, and lay in the sun in the stunning Parque de Retiro.

El Rastro Flea Market is on every Sunday until 3pm just round the corner from Reg’s and I’d heard it was one to tick off the list. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to go to be honest – it was mainly imported cheap junk from China, some fearsome looking knife displays and then a handful of leather stalls selling beautiful bags and sandals, but which can be found all over the city on any given day. Maybe London’s markets have spoilt me, or maybe flea market doesn’t quite translate, but it’s fairly average and absolutely heaving.

The Thyssen was amaaaaaaazing, huge art collection ranging from 6th century to post-modernist pieces. I was really hoping to see Antonio Lopez’s temporary oil exhibition but alas, it was sold out until the end of its run.

The Reina Sofia is housed in a fantastic building – an old 18th century hospital. Huge vaulted ceilings and smooth flagstones on the floors.The collection is impressive to say the least. All the temporary exhibitions were closed for some reason, but the extensive Spanish art collection was open, including a great deal of Spanish civil war works. And best of all, I got in free! Madrid is great for student discounts and under-25 concessions. I spent hours wandering the four floors admiring or ignoring Picasso, Miro, and Man Ray. (I think I offended someone who asked me what I thought of Guernica… note: don’t shrug.) The fourth floor was my favourite – a veritable maze of 20th century artwork from a collection of international and Spanish artists. Other pieces that took my fancy – Benjamin Palencia’s collages, Man Ray’s Indestructible Object, Lumiere’s film The Serpentine Dance, and Lygia Pape’s Magnetised Space.

I actually skipped the Prado this time. I went last time and spent hoooours there. I went a couple of times to get tickets then changed my mind due to the vast braindump the other galleries had performed on me.

Everyone returned for my last weekend in Madrid, and Beth moved from London too! Beth and I checked into a hostel for the weekend – Cat’s (a great, big, friendlyish but slick outfit.) It was all go – straight to the jamon shop for cheese, ham and cava, via the bar for a quick beer (3 euro for a a bucket of 5.) Then on to tapas bars in La Latina for a quick bite and wine, and karaoke – the most unlikely of Spanish evenings. Saturday morning spent quietly reflecting on the joys of alcohol and hostel awakenings. Beth moved into her hostel for the next few weeks, mad jealous Fabrizzio Guesthouse overlooking Plaza Mayor. Definitely my next hostel if I can’t crash at friends in Madrid!

Sunday brought amaaaaaaaaazing paella at Costa Blanca in Quevedo, and last but not least, a bull fight.

I have lots to write on the bull fighting. Will leave it for another day so you aren’t actually reading a novel. I promise to put lots of photos in my next posts to make up for this one!

La vida loca, besos!

Alex

Tate Modern: My Favourites

 

In the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern was a huge area covered in what looked like gravel. A few people had joked about it before I went, but no one said that it wasn’t gravel – it was millions of tiny handmade porcelain sunflower seeds! It was amazing!

Sunflower Seeds, by Ai Weiwei, is made up of 100 million unique life-sized sunflower seed husks. Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen.

Part of the description beside the work at the Tate said that “Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today.”

A video showed the whole process of the clay being dug from the mines, to the seeds being sculpted and painted, baked and shipped to Tate Modern. The people who made the seeds have been porcelain makers for thousand years, previously to the Emperor’s of China. They have less and less work as porcelain becomes less coveted, but they loved the new project (which they didn’t really understand) of making the seeds, and hoped that the artist would ask them to make something else for his works.

 

 

I loved all of David Shrigley’s works, they had quite a collection. Little ink and paper drawings all over the wall.

 

Franz Roh – Total Panic II, 1937 This is a collage of etchings that was in the surrealist gallery. Having said I don’t really like surrealism, I actually liked a lot of the works there. This was in a little frame on a wall of with lots of other small works.

 

Lee Krasner was the wife of Jackson Pollock, and she painted this after his death in a car accident. It is quite a large work in real life and full of emotion, and big sweeping strokes.

 

This is HUGE, and I love the colours merging into each other, and the thickness of the paint, and how it looks like someone has cut out a little square of an impressionist painting and blown it up to be two meters tall. I had the biggest urge to touch this one. I don’t think they appreciate that at the Tate though…

 

I always wished I could paint like this, with unrealistic/brighter colours and big blobby brushstrokes. Never quite managed it so I’ll just envy Derain’s portrait of Matisse instead. Go Fauvism!

Tate Modern: Nostalgia moments

I made it to the Tate modern on Friday night for their late close. SO GLAD I DID. It’s my new favourite place. I saw so many things I loved, and a few I didn’t but these were all ones I’d known of before, and was so excited to see.

This was on the cover of one of the art books I had at high school, and I never knew much about it. The book was smaller than A5 size, the artwork itself a massive 2.8 squared meters. It took up an entire wall and was actually painted by Matisse’s assistants, and then cut up by him to form a giant collage. It was the final piece of art created by him before he died.

 

An exhibition came to Wellington at the start of the year called The Impressionist’s, and there were lots of Monet’s paintings. I’ve loved Monet’s works since high school and art history, and this was a huge piece that took my breath away!

 

Having put this picture up I realised I never saw it at the Tate. I bought the postcard afterwards at the gift shop, but in fourth form art we had to copy a portrait by a famous artist and I chose this one by Picasso. Now I’ll have to go back next time it gets put on display! It isn’t like the Picasso’s that you usually think of, but I love the brushstrokes, and from what I can remember this was painted in Picasso’s ‘blue stage’. Actually, having just done some quick research, it was painted in his ‘rose period’, after his blue period, yet in the blue period style – influenced by the death of a friend.

 

I’ve never been a huge fan of Salvador Dali – surrealism generally annoys me somewhat, but this in the flesh is amazing. The brushwork, the colours, as well as the clever mind-blowing aspects pertaining to the story of Narcissus gave me a massive appreciation for Dali. It also reminds me of my dear friend Becca – so how could I not love it?!

 

Man Ray Man Ray Man Ray! I just like his name. And it reminds me of my mum, I think she has a postcard on the fridge of it from our last visit to the Tate before moving to New Zealand. I really like the fish too…

 

Oh man, I had completely forgotten about this artwork til seeing it in the surrealist gallery. Again a high school art piece, we made similar pieces when learning about perspective and I find Da Silva fascinating. LOVE.