Where in the world is Lani?

Day 109 - Discovering my new favourite artist

SPAIN | Sunday, 6 May 2007 | Views [36498] | Comments [14]

Here´s a hot tip for Madrid - all the museums and galleries are free on a Sunday! So on Sunday, I hit the galleries - ready to be overwhelmed with fantastic art in Spain. I visited.....

The Prado Museum:

Without any doubt, this the Prado is one of the world's most important museums since it opened in 1819 (when it became one of the world's first public art galleries). This massive collection is a testament to the centuries of devotion to art accumulation by the Spanish monarchy and church and is full of old style gems that you just don´t see in Australian galleries.

To name just some of the artists represented in the Prado: Brueghel, Van der Weyden, Van Dyck, El Bosco, Durero, Rembrandt, Rubens, Fra Angélico, Mantegna, Botticelli, Bronzino, Rafael, Tiziano, Tintoretto, El Greco, Velazquez, Murillo, Ribera, Goya, ...

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum:

This (once private) fabulous collection of paintings is housed in the Palacio de Villahermosa (19th century) which was completely remodelled by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo. The collection was started in 1920 by the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza's father, who upon his death distributed the work among his various heirs. Keen to reunite his father's collection, the last Baron (Hans Heinrich, 1921-2002) bought together most of the works from his relatives and the proceeded to acquire large numbers of new works to produce what is one of the world's finest private art collections. The museum was opened in 1992 after an agreement was reached between the Baron and the Spanish government, originally as a loan. A year later the collection was bought outright and now the gallery is a popular and beautiful place to visit in Madrid.

My favourite pieces here were the Salvador Dali´s - so strange, but you just can´t look away!

The Reina Sofia: My favourite!!!

Once the San Carlos Hospital, the remodelling of this building began in 1981 and in 1986 the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía was inaugurated, becoming the principle location in Madrid for national and international exhibitions. It is home to a variety of art-related activities, such as conferences, courses, poetry recitals and contemporary music concerts (though none of these were happening when I was here!)

In 1990 the collection of modern Spanish art was added to the museum, and this is the stuff that I really love. Not long afterwards a decision was taken to move Picasso's famous Guernica, with its preliminary sketches and drawings as well as a work by Juan Gris into the Reina Sofía, all of which had been previously kept in the Casón del Buen Retiro, a part of the Prado Museum. The areas with Picasso are amazing and I couldnt believe I was actually seeing Picasso!!!!

Amongst the works at Reina Sofia, I discovered an artist called Joan Miro who I totally feel connected with and as I saw more Miro work, I felt more and more inspired and happy!

After a busy day visting all 3 museums, I was so happy to have learnt some new things (particularly about Spanish art) but also about some wonderful artists that I hadn´t heard of, or had the opportunity to see before. I guess thats what travelling is all about!

Miró - I love it!

Tags: Culture

Comments

1

wow your journal just keeps getting better its a highlight of my day to read it. The painting looks absolutely amazing it would be fantastic to see more of the artist work thanks lana for keeping me entertained and inspiring me more to travel and see whats out there.

katrina May 9, 2007 8:22 AM

2

I am in search of references on the workmanship the Garden of Miró. Everything what I found was a mention of the Wikipédia, dating it of 1977. Necessary of more data on this workmanship, but I did not obtain to locate it in nhenhum of the books that I consulted on the painter. I entered in this page in search of any information on the workmanship, the museum where it meets or books that contain its image. I am thankful for the attention!

Michele Mar 20, 2008 5:40 AM

3

I'm doing a project for my spanish class and I have to say this is a high quality piece and I think my teacher would love this or any of your art pieces. I love this painting becausr of the colors and it's different,keep on doing what your're doing and thank you for making this picture I never seen a piece of art that shows alot of charater!!

sahara Mar 31, 2008 3:43 PM

4

So Very intersting is his art.

Evan Mylo May 25, 2008 10:18 AM

5

I absolutely love this painting and I have been looking all over the interenet to find out more info on it; however you are the only person in which it seems to come up for. I have found several pieces of art by the same artist but nothing the artist has done looks as close to how great this picture is. I love Miro's art, but this one is so different and unique. I want to get a print of this so that I can frame it and hang it in my house, please let me know if I can find it someone and where it may be.

Angel Jun 20, 2008 12:15 AM

6

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PAINTING CALLED, IM ASKING THY ON A NEED TO KNOW BASIS WOMAN!

barthlomew Oct 2, 2008 12:17 PM

7

the name is GARDEN woman.

mary Oct 30, 2008 6:00 AM

8

who painted this?

Brandi Nov 26, 2008 7:04 AM

9

can you give me the name of the miro picture here? Yes, Its called Garden Take care xox Lani

yohan Jan 4, 2009 11:53 AM

10

the name of this painting is 'Garden of Miró', and it is by Juan Miró

kate Mar 18, 2009 5:02 AM

11

Bonjour je fais un exposer sur se tableau et c'est à rendre pour la semaine prochaine et j'aimeraie savoir de quand dâte-t-elle? J'attend votre reponse avec mes sentiments respctueux.

céleste Jun 6, 2009 7:03 AM