Madrid: Musings on Museums

Museums. In a sense, I treat them like churches – a place to reflect, be inspired, learn, and connect with history. Museums and Europe are a perfect match because Europe's cities, big and small, are living museums. Find a panoramic view of a mid-sized European city – for example, Edinburgh or Seville. Then, locate a cityscape painting from the early 1800's in the local art museum. Chances are the panoramic view of an European city today is remarkably similar to the same view from 200 years back.

Yesterday, in Madrid, I visited the Prado, one of the world's most famous art museums. At the museum was a temporary exhibition featuring Pierre Auguste Renoir, one of my favorite Impressionist artists. What strikes me about Renoir is the way he can create dreamy, soft textures on the canvas. To see rooms full of his paintings was like seeing a long-lost friend.

After seeing the temporary exhibition, I spent some time in the permanent galleries. Goya, Velazquez, El Greco: Big names, giant paintings. Royal paintings, war paintings, religious paintings.

Time for a change of pace. After lunch, I decide to visit the Museum of the City, hoping that I could learn more about the history of Madrid. Instead, I found one floor devoted to Lazaro Cardenas (the Mexican president who welcomed Spanish exiles during the Franco dictatorship), two floors mostly filled with replicas of significant Madrid buildings, and one floor showcasing future long-term transportation and infrastructure projects. Entry was free, and apparently, no one else thought that it was a good deal, because I didn't see any other visitors at all in the museum – just a collection of bored security guards scattered about. Spain is about to go bankrupt: it looks like there's a prime target for budget cuts. That is, if anyone ever steps foot into the museum to see what the “crowds” look like.

After a snack, I head to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid's modern art museum. Due to Franco's dictatorship, this museum would undoubtedly have political undertones. And that's exactly what I found. The permanent collection was mostly composed of artists belonging to two categories: exiled Spaniards (like Picasso) and propaganda artists sponsored by Franco.

And thus ends a day in the museums of Madrid. Museums – my favorite way to let a city tell her life story.