Madrid -Day Four

Today I headed for the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which holds Madrid's premier collection of modern art spanning from the 20th century up to the 1980s and includes paintings by such celebrated greats as Picasso, Dali, Joan Miró, Georges Braque and Francisco Goya. The four story museum is housed in Madrid's first public hospital and consists of open corridors with the display rooms running off from them and surrounding a lovely tree lined courtyard. Spain's most impressive piece of art no doubt is Pablo Picasso's 1937  "Guernica", and that monumental canvas is on display here in Picasso's unique Cubism style. With Cubism three dimensions are shown in two. For example, imagine walking around a statue and taking in all its angles then attempting to put them down on a two dememsion plane. Guernica of course refers to the Basque market town in northern Spain on which General Franco gave permission to Hitler to carry out the world's first saturation bombing raid. Picasso was in Paris at the time and immediately began sketching the scenes of destruction as he imagined them. The final result was a 286 square feet mural showing the horror of modern war technology and which became a fund raiser for the Republican cause. The Spanish Master had put a human face on what we we would call today "collateral damage". Picasso vowed never to return to Spain while Franco ruled. However the dictator ruled with an iron fist for the next 36 years and outlived Picasso. After Reina Sofia I walked to the nearby Parque del Retiro. This superb 17th century park with its verdant gardens, landscaped lawns and marble monuments is just made for ambling around. There is an artificial estanque or lake on which people can rent row boats, an iconic  Madrid experience. Sergio, my host, told me at midday on Saturday the area around the lake becomes a street carnival with jugglers, puppeteers and loads of local colour. That will be a great finale to my time in Madrid. Not far from my apartment is a local bar called the "Tirso de Molina", which refers to a famous 17th century Baroque dramatist,  poet and monk. On the outside walls and in the bar itself are rectangular panels on which are painted wonderful colourful images of people from 19th century Montmartre dressed in the lavish attire of thar time. The images are painted in the poster style of Toulouse Lautrec, whose provocative drawings illustrated the decadent life of those times. It is very pleasant to sit at one of their outside tables and enjoy a beer and a tapas while watching the passing parade. Before I arrived in Spain I told myself that the trip would be strictly cultural with no drinking.  However this went by the way the first day. But what the heck! I'm only old once.