Rodin-Giacometti/Joan Miró/Tapas

Saturday March 7 was a lovely sunny day with a high of 17C.  Great walking weather.

We decided to go and see the Rodin-Giacometti exhibit at the Fundación MAPFRE, which turned out to be only a 10 minute from our apartment.   We had missed this exhibit at the Rodin Museum in Paris when we were there in October 2019.

The Fundación MAPFRE's Recoletos Exhibition Hall is housed in a building constructed between 1881 and 1884 by the architect Agustin Ortiz de Villajos for the duchess of Medina de las Torres.  After a series of refurbishment projects, the building now has an exhibition area with approximately 1000 m2.  The Foundación organises painting, sculpture and drawing exhibitions with a focus on the last third of the 19th century to after WWII.  There is another exhibition hall around the corner from the main building.  It is dedicated to photography.

Entrance to Exhibit

In addition to the temporary exhibit, the Fundación MAPFRE also has space where it has a permanent collection of Joan Miró paintings, which we also visited.

Poster for the Rodin-Giacometti exhibit

August Rodin (1840-1917) and Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) never met and it was not until five years after Rodin's death that Giacometti arrived in Paris in 1922.  Yet their careers revealed numerous points in common.  Both were sculptors but also expert draughtsman.  Even though much of his career took place in the 19th century, Rodin's work "can be fully located in the context of modern sculpture."  The expressivity of Rodin's works, the techniques such as distortion, fragmentation, and his interest in modelling were all feature of Giacometti's work as well.  Both artists were able to reflect universal concepts such as anguish, suffering and anger.

Giacometti had admired Rodin's work from an early age, evidenced by the numerous books on the artist which he kept and in which he drew copies of the reproduced works.   Giacometti also made a comparable use of the sculptural base.  They both developed a group format and also created series and repetition of their works.  Ancient art was an inspiration to both artists.   They both did sculptures of "the walking man", an iconic figure in their respective careers and a universal symbol of the human condition.

Giacometti, Four Women on a Base, 1950

Rodin, Monument to the Burghers of Calais, 1889 (modern copy Plaster). Rodin individualised the faces and gestures of each of the men.  It depicts the six men who gave themselves up to the English troops during the 100 Years War in exchange for a guarantee of safety for their fellow citizens.

                                                      Rodin, Monument to the Burghers of Calais, first model, 1884

Rodin, The Three Faunnesses, before 1896/cast in 1916

Rodin, The Three Virtues, before 1899/cast in 2001

Giacometti, Four Figurines on a pedestal (London Figurines, version B), 1950

Giacometti, Three Walking Men (small base), 1948

Rodin, The Shadows, before 1886/cast in 1928)

Rodin, Morhardt Torso, Large model, before 1899

Rodin, Head of Victor Hugo, in two pieces, c.1883

Giacometti, Annette standing, c. 1954

Rodin, Balzac, smiling bust c. 1899/cast in 1998

Giacometti, Diego (head with turtleneck sweater), c. 1954

Giacometti, Bust of Annette VII, 1962

Both of the following busts were so expressive--- an excellent pairing of works by the two artists.

Rodin, Bust of Eugène Guillaume, 1903

Giacometti, Bust of Annette (known as Venice)

Giacometti, Walking Man II, 1960 in the foreground and Rodin, Walking Man, large model, 1907 (plaster)

Giacometti, Copy of Rodin's Walking Man, after 1950

Rodin, Bust of Gustav Mahler, undated on the left and Giacometti, Bust of a Man, 1965-66

Giacometti, Small Bust of Silvio on a double base, 1943-44

Rodin, Weeping Woman, mask on a base and capital, 1885

Rodin, Mask of Hanako, type C, c. 1907

Giacometti, Head of Diego, 1965-66

There was a room of photographs of the artists working in their studios.  Both artists often welcomed photographers to their studios.  Rodin made use of photography to document his activity from the 1870s to the end of his career.  In the late 1920s, Giacometti had his works photographed.

Albert Harlingue, Portrait of Rodin in his studio in a felt hat, c. 1904-06

Henri Cartier Bresson, Alberto Giacometti at work modelling in the studio, c.1946

Giacometti, Head of Diego (1937) (first two on the left) and Diego (head on a cube-shaped base), 1938

Rodin, Camille Claudel in a Bonnet, 1884, Mask of Camille Claudel, c. 1898, Camille Claudel, 1883-84

Giacometti, Large Head, 1958-65 and Rodin, Man with a broken Nose, undated.  Another great pairing!

Giacometti, Bust of a seated Man (Lotar  III), 1965-66

Rodin, Head of Lust, large model, 1907

Giacometti, The Nose, 1947-1950.   This figure was created in Paris after his return from Switzerland in 1945 where he had spent the end of WWII-- it is dominated by a prominent central element that can be interpreted as an expression of trauma provoked by the events of the war.  The nose "evokes the shape of an open-mouthed revolver that appears to scream at the horror of violence".

Rodin, The Cry, 1898

Rodin, Head of Jean de Fiennes, c. 1887 (cast in 1982)

It was an excellent exhibition.  The commonalities in the approach and the techniques of the two artists were clearly evident.  The presentation of the works was excellent.  Some of the pairings were spectacular.  We were very glad that we got to see the exhibit in Madrid.

We then went to see the permanent collection of Miró (Barcelona 1893- Palma, 1983) paintings in another section of the building.

Poster for the Miró space

Most of the paintings in the collection were from his later years and featured his favourite motifs of women-birds-star.  Some of these paintings had features almost like "drip painting".  Miró's discovery of Oriental calligraphy and street graffiti is also evident in many of these paintings.  The captions were only in Spanish and French.  I have used the French captions.

Femme assise II, 1959

Trois boules, 1972

Femmes et oiseaux II, 1969

Personnage et oiseaux, 1969

Tête, oiseau, 1976

Tête, 1976

Personnages et oiseau dans la nuit, 1942

Personnages et oiseaux devant le soleil, 1970-77

Femme entourée d'oiseaux regardent le lever d'une étoile, 1942

Personnage, oiseau, étoile, 1943

Personnage et oiseau entourée de rossignols, 1976

Among the Mirós - Paysage animé, 1973

Femme espagnole, 1972

There was also a small room with a number of Calder's (1898-1976) sculptures interspersed with Miró paintings.  The two artists met in Paris in December 1928 and became life-long friends.  Starting in 1930, Calder produced wire portraits of many of his friends.  The Calder pieces in the room were gifts from Calder to Miró.

Calder, Portrait of Joan Miró, c. 1930

Calder, Black Polygons, 1947 and Miró, Peinture (Per a David Fernández Miró) 1965

What a collection---- Miró has always been a favourite-- his colours, creativity and fun are so evident in his paintings.  

We went around the corner to the other location of the Fundación MAPFRE to see a photography show by British photographer Richard Learoyd (b.1966): The Silence of the Camera Obscura.  He takes wonderful large colour photographs chiefly of people in his studio.  He also takes pictures of animals in wonderful still lifes.  He uses a camera obscura that he built himself.   

Unfortunately, there was too much reflection off the photographs to take pictures.

Poster for the exhibit

We then wandered down to the Huertas neighbourhood where we had a late lunch at Maceiras, a rustic tapas bar full of locals.

Maceiras-- We went into the restaurant with the large sign and then a woman took us out of the restaurant and took us to the smaller place next store which had more seating.

Buzzy- all Spanish people having Saturday lunch

Bar

Alano with green peppers with sea salt

Shrimps in a garlic sauce

With my glass of vermut and the shrimps

We walked down a long pedestrian street called Calle de las Huertas where there were some artisans set up and where some stores had some special deals for the Mercado de las Ranas, a local market, which was happening on March 7.

Toulouse Lautrec 

We headed to a street very near the Mercado San Miquel and Plaza Mayor to have a coffee at Federal Coffee, a place run by a couple of Australians.  We were amazed that they serve one of our favourite beans -Allpress- from New Zealand (originally from Auckland also found in London England and numerous Australian cafés).  We had two flat whites and bought some beans.

Federal Coffee in a very nice square

Inside of Federal 

As we were leaving, we saw a lot of people under a weird contraption.   We thought it might be folks practising for the upcoming Easter procession.

Prepping for the Easter procession

We walked back to the apartment.  The streets were full of people out on a Saturday night.  Alano made dinner: dorade (sea bream); potatoes; artichokes (one can never have enough fresh artichokes); salad; wine and dessert.  Another fine day.