While in Madrid for the Shakira concert, an absolute must-see was the Guernica...
Possibly Picasso's most famous painting, it is housed in Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. This museum was specially constructed to house this painting, and it contains besides other great works of art from Picasso, Miro, Salvador Dali and other great 20th Century Spanish modern artists (the classical stuff is in the Prado Museum).
Picasso made this painting in 1937, to protest the bombing of the village of Guernica by the Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War. It was first displayed in 1937 at the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris International Exposition. Later it moved to the MoMA in New York. Eventually in 1981 it moved to Museo Reina Sofía.
The first time I read about Guernica was as a kid of 14, in an article the Readers Digest, way back in the 70s. I kept reading about it and seeing pictures of it on and off all through these years. To be honest, I never thought much about it. Although I admire many of Picasso's works, this one left me cold. I couldn't understand what the fuss was about. It seemed like a hodge-podge of dying bodies.
Anyhow, since we were in Madrid, it would be silly to leave without seeing one of the most famous paintings in the world. We took a full day for Reina Sofía. It has SO MANY great paintings. We came early in the morning when it had just opened, and left at almost the closing time. Luckily, they allow you to leave and come back with the same ticket, so we had a nice traditional Spanish lunch at a tavern around the corner.
After spending hours seeing other Picassos and Miros and Dalis, we eventually worked our way to the Guernica room.
And BAM! It hit me like a blow in the stomach!
The sheer size of it takes your breath away. And then it starts to work on you. The realization creeps up slowly... it is not a hodge-podge of body parts, but poignant scene that unfolds in front of your eyes bit by bit, like shaking a kaleidoscope and watching patterns emerge. It stops being a flat tableau, and spreads out in front of you like a painful vista. It engenders such powerful emotions that it hurts in the chest. I started to cry. I had to turn my back on it and wipe my eyes. I was in the room with twenty other visitors, and they were all similarly moved.
No work of art has ever affected me like this. Just six months ago we were in Florence, and got to see Michelangelo's David and Botticelli's Venus. They moved me too, but it was nothing like this.
The best part is that crowds at the museum are moderate, and you can see the paintings in peace for as long as you like, unlike the Mona Lisa at the Louvre.
Here are some of the other paintings and sculptures that particularly moved me...
Dali's paintings of his sister, when he was younger
No comments:
Post a Comment