"Let's Sit"

  Seville, Spain
Thursday, June 7, 2007

To our delight, the Seville art gallery was free.  There's just something about free museums: something enchanting.  A free museum can almost make me believe in the joy of learning, in the purity of artistic expression, in the egalitarianism of the system.  A free museum creates a sense of voluntarism.  A non-gratis museum makes me feel pressured to learn: since I've paid I must make sure that I absorb everything.  A free museum allows one to relax, to linger, to revel.
 
Angel Lopezobrero's "Tipos del Barrio Chino": A woman sits at a table, cheek resting on her hand and her legs crossed.  Her left hand rests between her upper thigh and stomach.  The green strap of her dress slips down her dimpled arm, revealing a grey undergarment strap.  Her mind is faraway from the table, from the drinks and from the people around her.  Sad?  Drunk?  Sleepy?  Weary?  I couldn't tell, but I imagined her story and found her to be wholly unlike those others at her table.
 
The gallery had many wonderful paintings, but most amazing was Picasso's "La Planchadora".  It was on loan from the Guggenheim in New York. 
The piece shows a waif-ish figure ironing.  She's all sharp lines and pale, grey skin.  It's not so much that she's sorrowful, but so weary.
 
As we left the room, one of the guards joked with us, saying that he was Picasso. "Sure you are", we laughed.  He then proceeded to show us his ID card: "Jose Picasso". 
 
In the afternoon we made our way over to the Alcazar, the royal palace in ye olden times.  It's supposed to be special because of its mixing of Christian and Muslim architectural design.  There were lots of brightly coloured tile walls and simple, symmetrical gardens.  But, ultimately, it was a bit boring.  Actually, the only thing that was truly thought-provoking was a room full of paintings of life in the former USSR.  We couldn't figure out why such a display would be there.  Franco was quite anti-communist, so it didn't seem that the pieces would have been leftover from his time.  If you've any insight, please let me know.
 
Later we sat on the terrace and talked a bit with some of the people in our room.  Indeed, I talked to more people at the Oasis Hostel in Seville than I did the rest of the trip combined.  It truly was a friendly place.