While walking through the Castel Sant’Angelo we came across a newel post covered with carved bees. I thought it was charming in its weathered way.
The symbol of the bee related to the family Barberini (they had changed it from an earlier symbol of a horsefly) and a few days later we visited their Palazzo which is now the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica. This is a building worked on by three different architects, Bernini, Borromini, and Maderno. Bees were everywhere. Picasso was also everywhere on this trip…we saw three different exhibits of his work (more on that in another post.)
Terry and I arrived in Rome Wednesday for a two week stay after which we will go to Venice for two more. We have an apartment in Trastevere close to the Tiber River.
We walked across the bridge to Castle Sant’Angelo with the other Untours participants for our event on the first day. I felt all eyes were upon me…not real eyes but these eyes…
Even lovelocks!
And inside was a big colossus.
Almost to the top of the castle was an angel by Raffaello da Montelupo that had been at the very top until it got hit by lightening and was moved down. It had my favorite wings.
Then at the very top is the bronze Michael the Archangel by von Veuschaffelt done in 1753.
As we left we used our eyes to view the Vatican in a display.
As luck would have it, each time we take the bus we are watched by this neighborhood poet. (Belli)
Before getting to enjoy the balcony with double pillars in the front of the Palau de la Musica Catalana, we were treated with a small exhibit of the work of Joan Miró.
From the website describing the show…
The interview Miró granted to Georges Charbonnier in 1951 gives us a few key clues to understanding the essence of his work. To the question of whether the artist “has to put down roots”, Miró replied, “The roots of the land. The roots of the earth. Without in any way taking the earth to mean the motherland. I am talking about the earth that makes trees, a flower, a vegetable grow.” This point of view meant he attached great importance to popular art: “A plate made by peasants, a pot to eat soup from, are for me as wonderful as a piece of classical Japanese porcelain displayed in a case in a museum.” And from a taste for objects to sculpture is only a small step: the artist is driven to sculpt “for the direct contact with the earth, with stones, with a tree. When I stay in the countryside, I never think about painting. On the contrary, sculpture is what interests me.”
The pieces on display in this room, from the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, are these words made solid; both the photographs by Joaquim Gomis, taken in the studio on the Passatge del Crèdit in Barcelona and at the Mas Miró in Mont-roig, and the sculptures by the artist himself. The former because they are visual testimony to Miró’s love for the elements of nature and for everyday objects, and also to his first pottery and sculptures, created from 1944-1946 onwards. And the latter, the sculptures, because a decade later Miró started out once again from objets trouvés to construct, by casting them in bronze, what are in fact assemblages of the objects he gathered and collected with such passion.
Then our group was led out onto the balcony and, when I looked over the side, I could spot the restaurant where we had eaten lunch. They have a very good deal and excellent food…so, here come my pictures of food!
Tosca seems to serve just about all day long, but for lunch they have a fixed priced meal where you get to choose three choices from their tapas menu and since there were two of us that meant six tapas to share, plus drinks.
Calimari
Patatas Bravas
Salad
Empanadas
Pork
Seafood Risotto
Really, I am only going to make one post about food…but since the topic is Miró, it brings me to my memory of strolling down La Ramble to one of the Barcelona markets (there are markets all over the city, but this was our destination walk to possibly the most famous). Just outside of the market in the middle of the walk way is a large mosaic in the street done by Miró.
(Plus, there was this really cool building that contained remnants of when it was built. Originally, it was a store to buy umbrellas and it still contains umbrellas and a dragon on its facade…mosaic, of course). A pause in our stroll for the umbrellas:
The entrance to the Mercat de la Boqueria:
Yes, there was quite a hustle and bustle and we were even there early. We made our way toward the back (Rick Steves says the food stalls at the back are less expensive than the ones near the entrance.) We found two stools so we could slide up to the bar and started to order. Lots of chaos around us, good service, and lots of fun.
The menu above where they are preparing the food.
Our waiter
Albondingas
Croquettas
Another day, another order of calamari, this time with a caprese salad
I loved the food in Spain, but being at home I am having a difficult time going back to no starches. While in Spain the starches were balanced by all the walking so there was no discernible damage. Unfortunately, at home it doesn’t quite work that way…Miró and tapas are not really connected, but if you are in Spain it is hard not to experience both repeatedly.
The marble balustrade with iron encased in glass railing…
Possibly the most impressive and beautiful skylight. The Moderisme architects did assemble the best artists and support team available…stained glass by Antoni Rigalt…
I’m including some music to entertain you…
A sculptural ode to Catalan folk music on the left of the stage…
A sculptural ode to classical music on the right…(that is Beethoven)…
Stage murals of eighteen muses with trencadís in the background, three-dimensional sculptures of heads and instruments by Eusebi Arnau, and mosaic bodies by Lluí Brú.
Gaudí was not the only one. There was also Lluís Domènech i Montaner one of his contemporaries and a professor at the architecture school in Barcelona for forty-five years. He was also a politician prominent in the Catalan autonomist movement. Montaner’s concert hall design is quite amazing.
The Palau de la Música Catalana is a concert hall designed in the Catalan modernista style. It was built between 1905 and 1908 for the Orfeó Català, a choral society founded in 1891 that was a leading force in the Catalan cultural movement that came to be known as the Renaixença (Catalan Rebirth). Between 1982 and 1989, the building underwent extensive restoration, remodeling, and extension. In 1997, the Palau de la Música Catalana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, more than half a million people a year attend musical performances in the Palau that range from symphonic and chamber music to jazz and Cançó (Catalan song).
A red brick and iron structure, it is cramped in with its neighbors but has so much to look at I stood in front of it and gaped…
Famous musicians connected to the choral society are depicted at the top of the pillars.
The front has the original ticket booths that no longer function, and mosaic everywhere.
The sculpture on the corner of the building was created by Miguel Blay and is called The Catalan Song. His signature can be found if you look hard enough.
The new entrance is around the side of the building where we went to meet up with our tour of the interior…
Dressing rooms, a library, and practice rooms are located in the new tower.
New pillars carrying the spirit of the old.
Our tour took us up to a second floor salon just off of the balcony with the exterior pillars which currently had an exhibit of Miró sculptures (I will show you that in the next post).
Mosaics in the building were by Lluís Brú; ceramics by Josep Orriols; stained glass by Rigalt í Granell; cement tiles by Escofet; and sculptures by Miguel Blay, Eusebí Arnau and Pau Gargallo.
I took so many photos of this building…pattern, pattern, pattern…I did get a little exuberant with my iPhone out on that balcony with all the mosaic pillars…exuberance begets exuberance…so I am going to break it into multiple posts. Watch this space!
The art that drew us to Alcatraz…an exhibition of the work of the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei.
From the catalog: “At first blush, @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, a major exhibition that pairs a politically charged Chinese contemporary artist with a landmark American national park, seems just as incongruous. Ai, a superstar in the international art world who helped design the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is currently forbidden by the authorities to leave China. Alcatraz—over the years the site of a Civil War-era fortress, a military prison, a notorious federal penitentiary, and a momentous Native American rights protest—is now a popular national park site and refuge for waterbirds. But it is exactly the pairing’s intrinsic conditions of contradiction that bring the two parts together-and make for the possibility of soul-stirring art.”
After arriving at the dock, we walked up to the New Industries Building which was originally a laundry and manufacturing facility.
“Both delicate and fearsome, the traditional Chinese dragon kite embodies a mythical symbol of power. Ai Weiwei unfurls a spectacular contemporary version of this age-old art form inside the New Industries Building: a sculptural installation with an enormous dragon’s head and a body made up of smaller kites. The sparrow-shaped and hexagonal kites scattered throughout the room feature stylized renderings of birds and flowers—natural forms that allude to a stark human reality: many are symbols of nations with serious records of restricting their citizens’ rights and civil liberties. The work references some thirty countries, including Cameroon, China, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan.
…By confining the work inside a building once used for prison labor, the artist suggests powerful contradictions between freedom and restriction, creativity and repression, cultural pride and national shame. He also offers a poetic response to the multi-layered nature of Alcatraz as a former penitentiary that is now an important bird habitat and a site of thriving gardens.”
With Wind (Installation, 2014. Handmade kites made of paper, silk, and bamboo)
Somebody I know was looking for birds out those windows and admiring the view to the Golden Gate…
In the next large room:
Trace (Installation, 2014. LEGO plastic building blocks)
“The viewer is confronted with a field of colorful images laid out flat across the expansive floor: portraits of over 170 people from around the world who have been imprisoned or exiled due to their beliefs or affiliations, most of whom were still incarcerated as of June 2014.”
“From the New Industries Building’s lower gun gallery, where armed guards once monitored prisoners at work, visitors peer through cracked and rusted windows to glimpse an enormous, multifaceted metal wing on the floor below. Its design is based on close observation of the structure of real bird’s wings, but in place of feathers, the artwork bristles with reflective metal panels originally used on Tibetan solar cookers…this piece uses imagery of flight to evoke the tension between freedom—be it physical, political, or creative—and confinement.
Refraction (Installation, 2014. Tibetan solar panels, steel)
We walked through lush gardens up to the Cellhouse.
Inside was Blossom (Installation, 2014, Porcelain, hospital fixtures)
Fixtures in hospital ward cells and medical offices are transformed into fantastical, fragile porcelain bouquets.
There were other parts to the exhibit inside but it was time for use to go look for birds in earnest…
Now I have run out of episodes with titles I can use the word “prisoner” in, so now I must bring this chapter to a close…
#1. The Pompidou Center in Paris. (In collaboration with Richard Rogers.) I loved taking pictures of this building…
However, I was not sure how much I liked the building itself, plopped down in the midst of the beauty of Paris and all of its formal architecture. My mind gave it a minus grade, most likely because it puts all its inner workings on the outside. (I am perfectly willing to take another trip to Paris to re-evaluate the situation, mind you!)
#2 The Academy of Sciences building in San Francisco. This building is one of my favorites from its living roof of California native plants down to its aquarium. It sits within the nature of Golden Gate Park and has a perfect view of the deYoung Museum. It houses multiple purposes (the planetarium, live penguins, a rainforest, as well as scientists doing their research and work). We visit here often and it gets a big plus from me.
#3 Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland. Situated so it has an interplay with nature, this building by Piano knocked my socks off with its exuberance and swoop. It perfectly illustrates this quote from Paul Klee in 1902: ” Everywhere all I see is architecture, line rhythms, plane rhythms.” A very big plus from me. That makes it 2-1 in favor of Mr. Piano. (I am so presumptuous to think this matters!)
I linked to a full picture of the building because I did not actually take one of all three of the curves. It started to drizzle and I was balancing my umbrella on my shoulder and trying to hold my iPhone with two hands…if I had only known. At the time I had not made the connection that all three buildings had been designed by the same architect.
We left the bear pit after being unsuccessful in catching sight of the bears. This is the old pit that they sometimes still use, but they do have new digs with lots of vegetative cover and big fishing pools.
We hopped onto the #12 bus and rode it to its end at the Zentrum.
This sculpture is taken from a line Paul Klee drew in one of his pieces of art…
The lobby and cafe…
Most wonderful of wonderful…the lower area given over to allowing creativity to develop. A whole light-filled space for kids’ art. This building is about the interaction of nature and culture…I could feel it…
The next post will be about the art in the exhibit rooms…
Immersed in Georgia O’Keeffe. Sunday morning we saw the show at the deYoung in San Francisco. I had heard a docent talk last week and the docent said that the very best day to see the show was Sunday morning. She was absolutely right…fewer people even though it is a very popular exhibit and great visibility.
No photographs allowed so I had to rely on posters positioned throughout the museum.
This show is from before she moved to New Mexico so there are no bleached bones, but I have to say that the images glowed in their presentation…silver frames on pale grey walls. Her works are always smaller than reproduction posters lead you to believe. Her colors were alive and intense.
I had to settle for taking pictures of favorite objects around the museum that they do let you take pictures of. I just love Ruth Asawa’s wire sculptures and we took the time to go up to the observation tower.
They are getting ready for their big fundraiser “Bouquets to Art”, March 18-23. Nice combo…O’Keeffe and flowers!
It came about that we spent the entire day and evening in San Francisco on December 30 because I struck a bargain with TM. Usually in the weeks before Christmas we have time for an evening trip over to see the festive lights. The sight of San Francisco City Hall illuminated with red and green puts me right in the holiday spirit. This year, however, I traded him a trip to his staff party (as in: “if we didn’t go to his party, where would we get a day to embrace SF?”) for a day in the City. The only day it would work was the day of my birthday. What with sales in stores, the lights still up, beautiful weather, and actually being able to get a reservation at the Slanted Door Restaurant, it was perfect.
I have seen SF much more often since I have been retired and one of my favorite things to do as I walk its streets is to use my iPhone to take pictures of the shapes of buildings, the spaces they create, and the light as it plays. These are my images from Monday, the almost last day of the year, 2013. At one point we were on the walkway of the Embarcadero Center which has nooks-and-crannies-views of landmarks and even parrots in trees (big sound effects there, too.)
I loved seeing ice skaters in the middle of a California town…
Plus there was the light show on the Bay Bridge to watch while we ate…
I was looking through a year’s worth of photos to create a review of my year and try to use the split screen capabilities of iMovie. This time of year is such a natural demarcation for me because practically all celebration in my life occur between the last week in November and January 1st. TM’s birthday and Thanksgiving (usually the same day or very close), Christmas, my birthday, New Year’s Eve all in one week. New Year’s Eve is also the anniversary of when I met TM and the night he asked me to marry him. Only two kids birthdays and our wedding anniversary happen in other parts of the year. This movie helped to wrap up the year. It felt good to look again at all the parts of the year. The garden flourished and the seasons changed indicated by the farmer’s market produce coming in on schedule. We saw many exciting sites in the world and close to home. I didn’t realize how the California coast figured so prominently in our journeys and, of course, San Francisco. Visually entrancing places. I started to use Photoshop Elements again at the end of the year. 2013 was a very happy year for us…I wish a beautiful 2014 for you!
Lois Reynolds Mead 
