Well, after all the wonders of La Sagrada Familia, we needed something a bit closer to earth (just a tad closer, as it turned out). After lunch on the square in front of La Sagrads Familia, we made our way down to a metro stop to go to Montjuïc, the promontory by the port, which houses several museums as well as the Olympic village. We went there primarily to see the Fundació Joan Miró. Apparently there was some big party taking place, because there were security everywhere, and lots of people carrying glasses and tables and chairs and stuff.
Anyway, I liked what I read about Miró himself, passing through the museum, and reading the little blurbs about him in each room. I also liked some of the paintings (my favourite was 'Constellations: The Morning Star'). Then we got to the top floor where there were a few large triptychs on display. One of them (the title said something about a hermit) annoyed me no end. It was three pieces of white canvas, with a thin black line snaking across each in extremely higgledy-piggledy fashion. That was it. Another triptych was called something like 'man approaching death' (I've tried to find out online what the actual titles are but I've had no luck. If anyone knows which ones I'm talking about, ping me). Each canvas had a fat black curvy line that got longer (or shorter depending on which one you looked at first), a squiggly blob of a primary colour (red, blue or yellow) and some black-grey grass-like scribbles along the bottom. Mona and I sat down to look at this last triptych, because we wanted to rest our feet rather than because we were struck with awe. I started out being really negative about it, saying how if THAT was art, anyone could do it, and that there was no craftsmanship in it, so don't even get me STARTED on the hermit one!
But then we kept looking at this the Approaching Death triptych (I'm just gonna make up a title, seeing as I can't remember the real one), and gradually we started to make sense of it. I still think that any six-year-old could have painted it from a purely physical point-of-view, but she sure couldn't have invested it with the symbolism that Miró did. I suppose that's what makes it a Piece of Art. Nearby a few of his sketches and preliminaries for this triptych were on display, which proved that he had actually given some thought to what he wanted to display on the canvas. So I started out absolutely hating it, and I ended up kinda liking it, because by discussing it we had actually managed to find some meaning in it. But! I still totally detest the hermit triptych, because THAT makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. So there.
Oh and downstairs there was an exhibition of other artist's works - can't remember if they were there because they were inspired by Miró. There was one, which was essentially a lot of black stuff on off-white background. The black part looked like a square rubber eraser does after you've used it a week or two, and the one corner is starting to wear away. It was called 'Patience', and it made me see red. I feel about this painting the exact same way I feel about that hermit triptych - there may be ideas, but there is no visible skill to it, and it's a combination of the two that really attract me to a painting. Witness Dalí's 'The Hallucinogenic Toreador' that Giorgia and I saw in Florida. I will never forget that. So many layers, not only of paint, but of symbolism and homages, sheer imagination and beauty. Loved it, loved it, loved it!
When we got out, the sun was slowly on its way down, and we walked up to the Palau Nacional, from where you can look down the cascading steps to the Font Mágica (big fountain, that unfortunately we didn't get to see in action) further on to Plaza de España. We sat on the top of the steps for a while, until we decided we'd better get moving or our legs would never again obey. Got a metro from Plaza de España home to Passeig de Grácia. Went to another Lonely Planet-recommended restaurant 2 minutes from Casa Batlló, which turned out to be excellent. The sangría was loooovely!! And cheap too! We had planned to get up early Friday morning, in order to beat the crowds at be at Casa Batlló the minute it would open at 9am.
Stay tuned for Part IV, in which it is revealed whether we manage to get out of bed in time or not.......
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