We were driving right past Malaga on our way to spend the night in Cadiz. Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga and although he had left the city, never to return, at the age of 19, they realized the importance of their native son and had a museum dedicated to him. We have never been huge fans of Picasso but thought if we stopped in at the museum we might garner some insights that would have us appreciate his art more.
This is a quote from the brochure: “Picasso's fundamental contribution to the 20th century stems from his transformation of the work of art into an expression that vindicates absolute individual liberty in the face of conventions, rules, manifestos, and dogmas. Picasso switched from one style to another with unparalleled ease. He interpreted and played down the canons developed by the great painters of the past, and manipulated stereotypes and myths of bourgeois culture, opting to bestow dignity on quotidian anecdotes and short stories that become great visual poems in his hands. Picasso was an artist who rethought the history of painting and thus revolutionized the fundamental and previously untouchable principles of representation. He demolished once and for all the hierarchical humanistic relationships in which the representation of the human form was more important than that of the object.” “Theses themes include the sense of origin, of roots, and of family and the importance in his work of those closest to him and everyday life; the historic role that the artist played as the creator of Cubism and his invention of images which synthesize multiple formal but also conceptual viewpoints; Picasso's approach to classic genres in the history of painting, such as portraiture, still life, landscape, and the nudes, well as the profound relationship of respect, inspiration and rivalry that he maintained with the great masters of the past; and finally, his remarkable ability to discover processes and invent supports that represent innovations in the history of the visual arts.”
We came away with only one insight which was in regards to his painting the front and side of the face together. It was explained that this is how a baby sees its mother – two denominationally, either from the front or the side, because the baby is so close to the mother's face this is all it can possibly see at any one time.
At the end of the entire tour and exhibition, after seeing some of his reportedly finest works, whether sculpture or painting, it still looked like something a guy with the talent of my 2-year-old granddaughter, who was totally high on some hallucinogenic.
We disputed whether stopping was a waste of our time or an experience to ponder about as we drove to Cadiz.
Cadiz is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Spain and one of the oldest in western Europe. It has a wealth of attractive vistas and well-preserved historical landmarks. But we didn't see any of it. We found a nice guesthouse (Ana de Viya B&B) a block away from the beach and basically parked our asses on the beach for the entire day. We had to pay 5 \euro each for the privilege of a lounge chair, but it was near a food kiosk and toilets so it was worth it. The B&B consisted of a very small bedroom and a shared bathroom. She kindly left a tray of snacks and drinks for us in the morning before she left for work.
We were on our way back to Seville.
