Yesterday, despite being exhausted, I dragged myself to Madrid´s Museo Thyssen-Bornemisa, where they are having a special exhibit about El Retrato, the protrait. This was an exhibit solely of modern portraiture, and the avangarde idea that these painters created images of the sitter with the intention of making it art, not a realistic representation--a concept we take for granted now, but apparently, it caused quite a shake-up in the art world at the turn of the century.
Anyway, since I really have only spent my time searching for places to live, or searching for food, or searching for Citibank, or searching for places to stay in Rome, (and no, Danny, I still have not had a chance to meet people yet!), I decided that since I really have seen none of Madrid, and since I am leaving for Rome on Monday, I better get out and about and see something...
So here are a few things that I learned at the El Retrato exhibit.
This is Salvador Dali´s portrait of Picasso. Nice! Dali is one of those dead people who I´d love to bring back to life and have a conversation with
Gustav Klimt can make any woman look beautiful, even when she´s lying on her deathbed
The point of cubism is to make the object of interest and its background seem like they´re on the same plane. It is not to make everything look like little cubes! Who knew?
I still love Van Gogh´s stuff, even though I always must be reminded that the proper way to pronounce his last name is Van Goth
