Sorry, But A Lot of Modern Art is Dreck

Still seething from our "adventure" of returning a car to the secret return lot at the train station in Bilbao, we stopped for lunch at a pleasant pintxos place on a square not too far from the station, but far enough.

The restaurant, Cafe Irovia, had ornate ceilings, ornate tiles and has been open since 1903.  There were a lot of locals there, including a group of some sort celebrating perhaps a confirmation or something.  The place was quite lively, and afforded us a place to sit down and chill.

We walked from there to the Guggenheim down on the riverside.  The outside of the Guggenheim is spectacular.  Curves of titanium, soaring columns, glass, and outside public art.  Designed by the famed American architect Frank Gehry, it's no Gaudi, but it's pretty cool.

There is the giant spider, the colorful flowers, and other outside art.  There is also a current display of pictures pre-Guggenheim and the same views now.  The clean-up is amazing to see.  Up the stairs to the giant Puppy of flowers, we went in the ornate entrance.

The atrium is fabulous, but then we made the mistake of going to see the art.  We should have stayed with the architecture!  Look, some of it was interesting, but some of it is dreck.  Actually, most of it is dreck.  Carol is the art person in this marriage, but even she was pretty dismissive of it.

Spare me the lecture.  I know a lot of thought went into the splashing a can of blue paint on the canvas (no, it did not).  I know the artist worked hard on it (yes, trying to figure out how to extract the most money from the biggest fool).  And I am sure the fluffy drivel spoken by the announcer on our individual listening guides was written by the most well-meaning of copy writers, but get real.

What a load of pretentious crap.  It was like Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts taken seriously.

To be fair, some of it was interesting, but most of it I had the sense that the artist just mailed it in and expected us to ooh and ah.

What has two thumbs and thinks modern art is BS?  This guy.

Later that night, our main guide for the hiking trip, Aner, talked about how people say that they could just draw three lines and call it art, but they would not do it in the same spirit of the artist thinking those lines represented, well, whatever.  I like Aner, but if the secret to modern art is to think deep thoughts while painting three colors on a canvas, I have to say it is underwhelming.  The 45,000 year old cave art we were to see the next morning is far more interesting.

After seeing most of the exhibits, we decided it was time to cut our losses, so we walked back to the hotel.  From the outside, I like the Guggenheim, but the pretentious of the "art" inside is too much.

Hey, I really liked the aboriginal art museum in Melbourne, so imaginative art strikes me as quite interesting.  There was no imagination there.

The snack of chocolate croissant and sparkling water at the hotel restaurant was far more satisfying.