A walk in the rain

 



Today is cooler. The rain has chilled my expectations for visiting two art galleries and Tara tells me that would be ambitious in any weather anyway. We dress up nicely for our day off (Tara has kindly taken leave from work) and we head out into the cobblestone streets. We return within minutes to grab jackets but forego the umbrellas at my silly advice that the rain will soon stop. It doesn’t. 


There are no shelters in the streets as there are in Wellington. We start to soak through and take the oppportunity for a coffee and hot chocolate in a cute cafe where they also serve the most delicious baking. They make a version of my cinnamon scrolls with loads of cardamom and when the scent hits my nose I miss home. Tara heads across the road to buy a cheap umbrella and we soldier on through the wet urbania to the city gallery - the ‘Sofia’.


I have chosen to come here today because this gallery has Guernica, a hugely famous painting of magnificent scale and meaning by Picasso. It is worth the walk in the rain, the queuing up the steps for half an hour, and the crowds of people. Yes, there are other amazing works of art that we view but it is Guernica that steals the show.


I studied Guernica when I was at University in one of those weird papers that fit in with my working hours while I was a student. Comparative Literature in Translation - art history was considered a part of this course as it turns out. The painting has since haunted me.


It depicts the fallout and violence from war. The Spanish civil war ended in 1939 just before World War Two broke out. Picasso painted a black and white monochrome painting the size of a living room wall (3.5 metres by 7.7) with the intention of bringing the full force of war into view and defy the lies of the dictators. Picasso painted it in response to the bombing of Guernica, a town in northern Spain (Basque country), by Germany and Italy (both then fascist). It is a political statement against war and violence at all times and all places. 


I try to photograph it in whole but it is too large and the crowds too dense.


We walk home and I sleep the rest of the day, unfortunately, some jet lag and homesickness catching up with me. I rise at 8.30pm to have some pizza with Tara and Nick but we all head to bed shortly after. 








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