total timepass...

The various museums I visited in Madrid differ from each other, in their themes and time periods. Like the Prado contains paintings all the way to the 1800s, while the Reina Sofia focuses on modern art. It is a good thing that I read about Reina before going, so I knew what to expect. Else, given its name, I would have expected to see the royal collection of paintings, with Christian themes. And it had nothing close to that at all! The museum owns more than 23 thousand pieces of photographs and paintings. And they are all modern art, from the 1900s onwards. Corridors of Reina Sofia The museum is huge, covering 4 floors plus an extension. It was constructed initially to be used as a hospital but ended up being used as a museum. So its architecture resembles a hospital more than a museum still. All around are corridors lined with rooms where the paintings are housed, far away from each other. And in the middle of the building is a garden which can be seen from the corridors. I had v...

This fall, I got a chance to spend a few weeks in Madrid. Madrid has always been known for its art and painting scene but I never explored it much in my earlier trips. But this time, it being lockdown season with limited things to do, plus my recently discovered love for painting led me to spend a considerable amount of time exploring the various museums of Madrid. This time around for sure, I was able to appreciate them more plus learn a bit about how I can improve my own paintings too. I visited the Thyssen, Reina Sofia, Prado and Sorolla museums during my stay. Most of them when they were free to visit. Given the pandemic, one had to book online even for the free slots, to limit the number of visitors. And surprisingly, the slots got booked very early on. All these museums are different from each other. Thyssen has paintings from a private collection and so has an eclectic mix of painters from different eras, of various painting styles. Prado covers the pre-1800 art while the R...