retiro park – Postcards from Barton Springs

Postcard from Madrid, Spain: Paradise found in parks

September 5, 2015September 5, 2015 postcardsfromsanantonio2 Comments

Better to reign in Hell,

Than to serve in Heaven

Lucifer in John Milton’s Paradise Lost

There he is, the fallen angel himself, painfully ensnared atop a beautiful fountain, guarded by gargoyles, in the heart of Madrid’s Retiro Park. John Milton’s Paradise Lost inspired sculptor Ricardo Bellver to create a monumental depiction of the devil in 1877. Both widely acclaimed and highly controversial, the statue is regarded as the only piece of major public art dedicated to the devil.

Anyone bedeviled by the artwork can easily avoid it, as Retiro Park is huge and is only one of many found in the capital city. Madrid has more parkland in its center than any other major European city, and Madrilenos take full advantage of them any time they are free.

These photos are from Retiro Park and the Jardin Botanico next to the Prado.

Totally swooned for the handsome tuxedoed birds. Exotic in my mind, but considered nuisances by many – common magpies. As with the storks earlier in our trip, never recalled setting eyes on them before, which might be lucky as a multitude of legends portray magpies as harbingers – or at least a single magpie – of ill will.

With his theft of glittering objects, the magpie envisioned by Gioachino Rossini in the plot of an 1815 opera almost caused an innocent maid to swing from the gallows. And the magpie’s reputation surely was not enhanced by the inclusion of the overture to signify impending over-the-top violence by Stanley Kubrick in his 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange.

Postcard from Madrid, Spain: Reina Sofia reigns royally over contemporary art

August 2, 2015 postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

One of Madrid’s most overwhelming museums, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia only displays approximately 1,000 works from its collection of more than 20,000 at a time.

Opened in 1990, the museum places Spanish art from the late 19th century to today in relationship to international contemporary art. Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” is perhaps its most famous piece, but the breadth of the collection is enormous. You can browse through some 7,000 of its works online.

And with so much to show, exhibits spill over to two venues in Retiro Park as well – The Crystal Palace and Palacio de Velazquez. Some of the photos above are of the Palacio de Velazquez, currently housing minimalist sculpture by Carl Andre.

Postcard from Madrid, Spain: Kaleidoscopic colors cross cultural divides

July 24, 2015 postcardsfromsanantonio3 Comments

Artist Federico Guzman transforms the 1887 Palacio de Cristal in the middle of Retiro Park into a prism of patterns and colors imported from the Sahara. His installation, Tuiza, is framed by an enormous Bedouin tent, a khaima, designed to spark interactions among people of diverse backgrounds in an hospitable setting.

The sides of his tent are formed with melhfas, traditional costumes worn by women of the Sahara. Women from the refugee camp of Bokhador worked with the artist directly to design and dye the fabrics.

The geometric patterns of the khaima and the more freestyle patterns of the melhfas explode kaleidoscopically when reflected in the glass with park surroundings and patterns and shadows created by the iron framework of the Crystal Palace.