What better way to spend a rainy, windy day in Madrid than to visit the art exhibitions featuring Monet and Abstraction? Especially a sleepy Sunday afternoon.
Walking from Anton-Martin Metro, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is worth the effort and €8. It was a 40min wait to enter the exhibition which I spent rummaging through their Art Store, which could be the most well stocked art curio store ever. I ran from curio to book to artwork, while my thoughts screamed, "I want this, I want this!" A is for Rhinoceros by Harriet Russell; the Anti Colouring Book by Susan Striker & Edward Kimmel and a book on how to make books were just some of my favourites. There were material dolls of Picasso and Monet. And some gorgeous jewellery pieces inspired by major artworks. A M A Z I N G
My favourite Monet water-lily artwork? : The water-lily pond 1917-1919, why? The shades, hues, rough application and crudeness of the brush strokes, the variegation, texture and weighting, the vertical and horizontal pull, the way it is both dark and dull but also bright and vibrant. It begins to demonstrate his divergence from his movement into abstraction and the difference from his other water-lily paintings is obvious.
Walking from Sol metro North East along a cobbled road, turning right at the church and then left I reached Fundacion Caja Madrid. Gratis(free). It is the second part of the exhibition and completes the examination of Monet and his links to Abstraction. I particularly enjoyed watching Monet paint in the video by Sacha Guitry, Monet pitando en su jardin de Giverney. Monet's study of his subject was so intense, he stared as his subject and only glanced at his artwork to daub his paintbrush. His was wholly focussed on what he saw.
Gerhard Richter's Abtract artworks were particularly interesting and I would like to have exposed my art class to many of his pieces, the dragging, scraping techniques, always revealing former brighter hues. His paintings have their own glow and emit a light of their own, they show careful composition.
I could sit and enjoy Monet's: Iris amarillos(yellow) for hours.
In the development of the Japanese bridge, it is evident that for Monet the subject doesn't change - he does, perspective, time of day, mood, choice of representation, it's all about choice.
Students ask: So was he just going blind?
I know what I need to attempt
