Madrid!

I was in Madrid for a few days last week and discovered for myself that, as well as having an incredible array of art museums (the Thyssen-Bornemisza. Prado and Reina Sofia were the ones I visited) the city iself was magnificent! We stayed centrally in a little apartment overlooking the Plaza Santa Ana.

Make sure to wear comfortable walking shoes if you go there, as the streets are all cobbled (which is hard on the feet!) but the best way to see the city is by walking around.

I was intrigued by the charioteer and horses on the roof of one of the buildings, so had to zoom in with my phone camera.

On another day's perambulation, I came across the chariot again from a different direction.

I'm not sure what Romulus and Remus have to do with Madrid, but sure enough they're there being suckled by the she-wolf on top of a wedding-cake type building.

There was lots of construction around Puerto del Sol so I never got a photo of the bear and berries sculpture there that is a symbol of Madrid. I preferred this mural of stacked bears that I saw on another day anyway. There is so much to see and do there that four days can't possibly be enough (and it isn't!) so I know I'll be back, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Antibes outdoor sculpture: Sosno

Every summer in Antibes (at least for the past few years that I have been there) there is an outdoor sculpture exhibition, by a single artist. Although the full exhibition consisted of 26 works by Sacha Sosno around Antibes and Juan-les-Pins, I only saw the pieces in the streets around Port Vauban. 

I was especially attracted to this triptych of cut-out columns, which had a changing perspective as one moved.

At first I thought this was a group show, as the highly polished and colourful street furniture and some sculptures were in such contrast with the rustic steel pieces. I epect they were just from different periods of the artist's work.

Other than the column pieces above, all the works had a figurative element. Even the abstracted colourful sculptures, were identifiable as "human". That said, one can also argue that architecture is figurative. These cut-out pieces that recall Roman sculptures are very playful begging for tourist photo-opportunities, as may be found usually limited to head-holes in seaside resort towns in the UK.

I enjoyed the way the cut-outs framed areas of the environment, totally dependant on an individual's point of view.

Summer and Street Art

Welcome June and finally some summer weather! I am indoors cooling off as the front of the house is a suntrap. But the sky is totally blue and it is very pleasant to take short bouts of sunshine outside. I have liked Saatchi Gallery on facebook, so I get to see all manner of stuff in various walks of the visual art world. Summertime is bringing out the "street artists" and "graffiti artists". I don't know what the difference in these labels is... The picture below is by French street artist Seth who  installed this piece in Paris recently.

While this piece is by Belgian graffiti artist Smates.  I don't know where this piece is installed. Do street artists get paid or are they officially allowed to do their work and graffiti artists do it on the sly? Someone please tell me if the terms actually mean something different. Regardless, I like these thought out, oversize images more than the bubble words and scrawly signatures normally associated with graffiti.