#3: Madrid: Art Galleries and Boredom

20th December, 2009.

I lied. On our second day in Madrid we didn’t visit any real “museums”. We visited art galleries!

Three of them.

That’s 5-6 hours of art galleries.

In one day. 

Beginning the day with a quick ham & cheese bocadillo (like a baguette) and hot chocolate from the local Museo de Jamon, we ventured a short way down to Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. This modern art gallery presented four fun filled levels, each painfully challenging my perception of “What is art?” 

Art is definitely not a large white canvas with solid blue smeared over the middle, and a few black flicks of paint over the top. Anyone who can spin meaning to that crap should seek work in a field such as politics. To be fair it wasn’t all bad, with work by Russian Aleksandr Rodchenko turning out to be quite interesting. 

Now I won’t bore you with full details of the other two art galleries (and honestly I can’t remember them all that well), but to say they were the Museo Thyssen and Museo del Prado. According to mum, these were the “things to do in Madrid”.

Boredom was enhanced by my failure to enact the “Louvre Policy”, something Graeme and I devised in Paris a few years ago. Owing to a limited time to visit the Louvre, we walked around the major points of interest without stopping for more than 30 seconds. Try it next time you are dragged along to an art gallery with the family.

I find this policy works well as I’m just not that interested in looking at paintings. Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate the skill an artist possesses to create such an artwork – but after that it’s often a case of “well that’s nice… what’s next?”

However mum and dad would have none of it. Mum was intent on seeking out “El Greco” paintings, while dad looked at everything in meticulous detail. By the end of the second gallery, Graeme had a similar jaded view of the whole art experience. 

Taking a departure from my whining, I would have liked to show some photos of Madrid. Today would have been THE day for photography. Yesterday’s rain had subsided for clear blue skies. A low winter sun bathed Madrid’s grand tree lined boulevards with golden light.

Stunning.

Now you'll notice there aren't any pictures in this entry.. 

It kills me to talk about the sights without any photos to back up my claims, but I decided to leave the camera and its bag locked up at the hostal. Given that most art galleries are neurotic about the size of bags - and my camera bag is rather big - leaving it back at the hostal would save me a lot of trouble.

I’ll just take the photos tomorrow, right? 


- Andrew