Postscript to Spain

In Madrid I saw Picasso’s Guernica. The scream of the horse, the candle on atrocity, the newspaper photograph. This in Madrid made me want to create grand horrible things.

In Barcelona, Picasso’s surety in upsetting those who tell you how it is done was explored in his museum. The father looks away as lines in the face look like fractures, but their location indicates intent. That sureness through Las Meninas reinforced for me the necessity of challenging the creation of art in all its facets and ideologies.

I went to the Joan Miró Foundation where Miró’s works made me stride like a giant, and growl as a monster. I felt I'd figured a puzzle as I understood where and when he made art. The deliberateness of his pursuit of ambiguities was to create jumping points for imagination. That the monstrous and dramatic figuration was an enabler for the viewer.

Within the foundations of Barcelona I walked the excavated streets and buildings of generations of Romans who conquered and lived in what would become Spain. I did my best to imagine their existence.

And now that I am back in Australia I continue to unravel my jotted notes, stick figure pictures, and photographs.