The Museos Thyssen-Bornemisza, Reina Sofia and Prado, Madrid

Three wonderful museums. All within a few minutes walk from our hotel in Madrid. I have always found it disconcerting that so many people tend to criticize extremely wealthy individuals or families that seem to have nothing better to do with their money than collect art (or antiques, collectibles, etc.). “Why don’t they give more to feeding programs? Why do they have such dark rooms with stuffy furniture and chintz drapes? Isn’t it so wasteful to pay 22,000x the cost of the actual oil paint for that Jackson Pollack!” It seems so self-indulgent, to blow thousands or sometimes millions of dollars on a painting that sits for decades in one’s powder room. But really astute collectors need much more than money to build their collections; they need a phenomenal passion and interest in the items that they desire to acquire and enjoy in the comforts of their home(s). Often, these wonderful collections are left to museums when their owners get cremated or choose to be munched on by worms, then the art is available for millions of folks to enjoy for hundreds of years to come for little or no expense to them. Sorry, but I would have to side with the wickedly wealthy or simply obsessed collectors on this one, it is, after all, their money and they can do what they want with it. If they want to take a poop while staring at a white piece of paper with just three lines sketched by Pablo Picasso that somehow tricks your mind into seeing a female rear end, then so be it. I actually had a small print of that Picasso ($2 from a college bookstore) on my desk throughout college because I thought it was so amazing that three lines would result in such a vivid image…

I was in awe of the collector Baron Hans Heinrich Agost Gabor Tasso Freiherr Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kaszon et Imperfalva (good grief, you think all those names were in his passport, Mrs. MM asks) and the stunning private collection he inherited from his father and to which he added a phenomenal list of 20th century art. In all, more than 1,000 pieces of art. Forget that his family wealth comes from steel and armaments and ship-building and his family companies probably built directly or indirectly things that were used in war, and that he managed to marry 5 women during his lifetime or that his title as Baron is a bit iffy, he still managed to pull together a pretty spectacular assemblage of art. Lucky for Spain, the Baron’s last wife was a former Miss Spain (another mouth full — Maria del Carmen Rosario Soledad Cervera y Fernandez de la Guerra), and while I am not privy to the details, I am wildly paraphrasing when I say that one fair day she said “Hey Hon, Baron dude, since you are going to kick the bucket soon, and I don’t like your other children, why don’t you just leave the art collection to Spain, they need another major art museum… And despite the fact that it is worth over $2 billion (according to Sotheby’s estimates), let’s just give them a discount and sell it to them for the rock bottom price of $350 million or so…” and so that, in short, is how the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection landed in the national coffers of Spain. Lucky ducks indeed. Let’s not get into all the dirty laundry that always seems to accompany great wealth. Not to mention the public tug-of-war to secure the collection. :) (Data for this paragraph from Wikipedia, the New York Times obituary of the Baron, museum materials, and my imagination, so do NOT take this seriously).

Spanning some 8 centuries of European art, the collection is a bit overwhelming. Some pieces I thought “hmmm, I wouldn’t hang that in a hall closet” while others struck me as being just brilliant. I tend towards more modern artists, so despite the Titians and El Grecos, I was more interested in the paintings by Van Gogh, Miro, Mondrian, Pollock and even an Edward Hopper or two. Photos were not allowed inside the museum. So all you get is a photo of the facade outside and a bronze bust of the Baron. The museum is definitely worth a visit, but it was our least favorite of the 3 most visited museums in Madrid.

My personal favorite was the Museo Reina Sofia, a relatively young institution, inaugurated in 1992 and named after Queen Sofia of Spain. The museum houses modern Spanish art with a few pieces by foreign artists represented. There are several current exhibition spaces that house some pretty esoteric stuff. The Sofia is housed in a coverted old hospital, and as such, feels like it is in a coverted old hospital. :( Having said that, it has a fabulous central courtyard garden that has a wonderful Alexander Calder mobile amongst the greenery…

…and I liked the large Miro sculpture in the garden as well.

The Teen took a breather on a bench in the hallway overlooking the courtyard, and I could almost imagine some distraught spouse waiting outside a hospital room wondering if his/her spouse was going to live through whatever ailment they had… The building had hospital vibes, if you get my drift…

…so we wandered to take in the pretty amazing assemblage of Picassos, this just one of many. The enormous and significant painting Guernica was also housed here, but photos of it not allowed.

This somewhat striking painting by Luis Fernandez entitled “Cabeza de res con manzana” or “Animal Head with Apple” was quite interesting…

While this stack of plates by the artist Arman entitled “Un metre pour Ben” or “A Meter (of dishes, I guess) for Ben” met with raised eyebrows from MM and The Teen and the inevitable unstated comment “EVEN I COULD DO THAT!”… :)

And what about this canvas of blue paint? I mean, hello?! But the Teen perked up excitedly when she saw this Yves Klein entitled “Blue Monochrome, 1956” as she had recently been tormented with an exam question in her Art Class that asked “Is this art?”… She apparently aced the exam. :) Go figure. I could definitely have done this. But that ISN’T THE POINT, I guess. :)

And on the walk/hobble back from the Sofia to our hotel, we passed the recommended small museum Caixa Forum but were too tired to venture inside, but instead we marveled at this wonderful VERTICAL GARDEN on the side of a building just in front of the museum. I started noticing these vertical gardens in Paris a few years ago, and am just amazed how the artist can bring in wonderful greenery into the heart of the city. I wish we had some of these vertical gardens in Metro-Manila!

Finally, we visited the Prado museum on another afternoon, and this just had too much to absorb in one visit (no photos as well). Paintings and sculpture pre-20th century just literally dripped from the walls of the Prado. A beautiful building, and a stunning collection. Definitely a must-see for any visitor to Madrid with even a mild interest in art.