A Day With Sofía, La Reina

I'm not sure why it took me five. whole. months. (yep, that's how long I've been living in Madrid) to go see what is probably my favorite work of art. Museums in Madrid frequently offer free evenings and paid admission days are a steal for seeing huge collections of world-famous artists...so there really is no excuse to not enjoy them! Granted, in my family we tend to zip through museums in record time, but we still enjoy it. It was high time. So I dragged my homie Tomás out on this rainy weekend and we walked off our Indian food comas at El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. First order of business: selfies with the art:

An easel with a canvas - are we the artists or the subjects?

Guernica by Pablo Picasso is for sure one of my top-three favorite works. I wrote a research paper on this painting in high school and it's been a favorite of mine ever since. Short history lesson on the work: Guernica is a small village that was bombed in April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War at the direction of Franco, Spain's former military dictator. After reading an eye-witness account of the suffering and inhumanity that transpired in Guernica, Picasso began sketching Guernica and finished the huge mural (about 11x25') after about six weeks of work in Paris. Images such as a woman holding her dead child, a horse screaming in pain, fire bursting through the door and contorted human bodies convey this chaos inflicted upon innocent people. Picasso wouldn't allow Spain to host this work until democracy was established in the country, so it didn't get to Spain until the 1980s and didn't reach its permanent home here in Madrid until the 1990s.

Guernica, Pablo Picasso (1937)

I don't often connect with paintings the way I do with music, but in this piece, the depth of feeling can really be seen - both in the sheer size of this work, and in the layered messages contained in it. So, as you can tell, I was geeked to see it. Sofía doesn't allow photography anywhere near Guernica, but we took plenty of pics with some of our other favorites...

yes, it's moving - I think it's a commentary on the concept of time

a girl after my own heart - so salty and sassy!

deep thoughts

a comment on love from a heart-broken artist

I was diggin' this whole silhouette in a silhouette thing. Dope!

Finally! We found his brain!

The museum is huge - we were beat after walking 1.5 of it's four floors of art - so I'll definitely be back to take in more. Check out all the museum pics here!