Madrid’s Cultural Scene heats up
While the weather has cooled a bit, Madrid’s cultural season is heating up. Through the winter there are interesting exhibitions at the city’s three major cultural institutions: the Museo del Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofia, which have all doubled in size in the past four years, and at the striking new CaixaForum Madrid.
City officials are inviting Americans to come for the holidays to see the spectacular Christmas light displays and partake of the venerable Spanish tradition of eating twelve grapes as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve to bring luck for the next year. Visitors can cap off their stay with the parade of the Three Kings on January 6. In between visitors can enjoy art exhibitions, a superb dining scene and the city’s pulsating nightlife. More Americans visit the Spanish capital than any other nationality. Last year, of the 1.2 million Americans who traveled Spain, 450,000 spent time in Madrid. And even in the current uncertain travel climate, the first nine months of 2008 saw a 2 percent increase, with more than 322,000 visiting.
The city’s newest cultural star opened last February: the $96 million CaixaForum Madrid. This former electrical power station dating from 1899 was transformed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron into a stunning venue for art exhibitions, film screenings, concerts, workshops and conferences. A striking 5,000-square-foot vertical garden by botanist Patrick Blanc covers one side of the façade. Running through January 18, 2009 “Etruscan Princes: Between East and West" showcases treasures from this pre-Roman civilization. The exhibition presents artwork, funerary gifts and household objects of the Etruscan aristocracy. Sacred architecture and friezes found in the royal tombs of Tarquinia will be on display. http://obrasocial.lacaixa.es/centros/caixaforummadrid_ca.html
Last October, the long-awaited debut of the Museo del Prado’s $208 million expansion opened to much fanfare. In an ingenuous and sensitive design, Pritzker prize-winning Rafael Moneo joined the new structure to the original 1785 Villanueva building. The new 167,023-square-foot space includes a large underground area concealed beneath a roof garden that connects the two buildings. The incorporation of the 17th-century cloister of the Monastery of San Jerónimo el Real, which was painstakingly dismantled and then rebuilt, created an exceptional, light-filled gallery. Through January 6, 2009, the Prado will host, “Rembrandt, History Painter.” Some 35 paintings and five prints were gathered from major museums in Europe and the United States to supplement the only painting by Rembrandt in the Prado’s permanent collection. Focusing on Rembrandt’s historical and biblical scenes, the show covers all periods of the artist’s career. Highlights include “Saint Peter and Saint Paul” (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne), “Samson and Delilah” (Stádel Museum, Frankfurt), and “Bathsheba at the Baths” (Louvre). Through April 12, 2009, “Among Gods and Men. Classical Sculpture from the Albertinum in Dresden and the Museo del Prado” is showcasing – for the first time outside of Germany – 46 classical sculptures from the Dresden museum. Next year the museum will host two concurrent exhibitions: “Francis Bacon” (February 3 - April 19, 2009) and “Sleeping Beauty: Victorian Painting from the Ponce Art Museum” (February 17 - May 10, 2009). In May 2009, a special show of murals by Joaquín Sorolla will be on loan from the Hispanic Society of America. www.museodelprado.es
If you haven’t been in Madrid for the past four years, you will not have seen the expansion of the Thyssen-Bornemisza. In 2004 the museum doubled in size to accommodate the nine-year loan of more than 700 masterpieces from the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. The $45.7 million expansion by BOPBAA Studio incorporated two adjacent late 19th-century buildings linking them to the former Villahermosa Palace with a new glass pavilion facing a garden terrace. Currently, “1914! The Avant-Garde and the Great War” is on through January 11, 2009. Running through February 15, is “Saenredam: the West Façade of Mariakerk, Utrecht.“ Opening February 10, “The Shadow“ will present an overview of the depiction of shadows in art from the Renaissance to the present day. (The second part of the exhibition will be shown at the Fundación Caja Madrid.) A major exhibition, "Matisse: 1917-1942," will open on June 9 focusing on the artist’s less-studied period that was marked by World War I. www.museothyssen.org
Just four years ago, Jean Nouvel conceived an eye-catching $80.6 million addition to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), which had been designed as Madrid’s General Hospital in 1781 by Francisco Sabatini and Juan de Hermosilla. Three new buildings – adding 290,000-square-feet – were grouped around a central atrium that is covered with a gigantic bladelike roof that juts out over the street. At the beginning of August, the museum inaugurated one of Nouvel’s concepts, opening up its sixth-floor terraces offering spectacular views of Madrid. Envisioning the museum as the inverse of most grand buildings, where the public spaces are on lower floors, the architect aimed to create a public square at the top of the building. For 2009, the museum will develop a series of happenings, poetry readings and dance performances to take place in this unusual venue. Running through January 5, is a show of important works by American feminist artist, Nancy Spero, a crucial figure on the New York anti-establishment scene in the 1960s and 1970s, that highlight her quest for a personal idiom. “From where there’s no coming back” is a reflective exhibition of 200 images and a video by Spanish photographer, Alberto Garcia-Alix, (through February 23, 2009.) Dedicated to Carl Einstein (1885-1940), “The Invention of the 20th Century” will connect the German art historian and critic’s theories with the art, literature, and cinema produced by artists whom he researched during his life. A selection of African and Oceanic sculpture, which played a key role in inspiring Cubism, is included (through February 16, 2009.) Also through February 16, 160 images from New York photographer Zoe Leonard will be on display, including her most significant works from the 1970s up to the present. Ten films from Lithuanian artist Diemantas Narkevicius will be shown from December 2 to February 16, 2009. After studying sculpture at the Vilnius Academy of Art in the early 90s, Narkevicius began exploring, through film, the psychological implications of contemporary society in the 20th century. And to end the visit, hungry art lovers can enjoy lunch at the museum’s restaurant presided over by one of Madrid’s most inventive chefs, Sergi Arola. www.museoreinasofia.es.
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