El Greco

almost.

Back to the old masters, your fascination with them, extended things like paintings like El Greco is watching, Baroque self-portrait, The Vision, which is based on Van Dyck's self-portrait with Magritte's pipe.

These unexpected combinations clearly appeal to you, don't they?

Yes, because I think our reality is so complicated nowadays, like being in virtual worlds, like digital, like internet and the AI coming up.

That raises the whole issue of whether people at a particular moment in time in the art world are prepared for the revaluation of a particular artist in the past because of some affinity between that artist and something that's going on in the present.

So, El Greco being discovered because he's an early expressionist.

And Patti was one of the first discoverers.

Franz Marc was an expressionist painter.

There might be a line of space trees silhouetted against the horizon, and hot still noons above a wilderness of clover, and Claude Laurent clouds inscribed remotely into misty azure with only their cumulus part conspicuous against the neutral swoon of the background.

Or again, it might be a stern El Greco horizon, pregnant with inky rain and a passing glimpse of some mummy-necked farmer, and all around alternating strips of quicksilverish water and harsh green corn, the whole arrangement opening like a fan somewhere in Kansas.

So European artist actually appears again there with Claude Lorrain, but kind of made strange.

Given that knight's move, given a new twist, so instead of familiar, incorporate it into this profoundly strange, vast landscape that gets Humbert's most appealing rhetoric, the rhetoric of an exile.

Your ticket also includes entry to the Museum of Montserrat, home to one of Catalonia's most important art collections.

Admire works by artists including Caravaggio, El Greco, Roussignol, Casas, Picasso, Dali, and Monet, as well as archaeological treasures from the ancient Near East, Egypt, and the Holy Land.

temporary exhibitions complement the permanent collection.

As you explore, your audio guide provides engaging commentary on Montserrat's nearly 1,000-year history, religious traditions, and cultural importance.

"We wanted Thomas Kincade.

We didn't want El Greco."

Right.

Like, what do we do?

Um, the recurring gag throughout all of this is that you can't tell who the different turtles are, and they keep forgetting their names, and so he keeps giving them four new names.

And the, the, it starts out with Picasso, El Greco, Mantegna, and Giacometti, which I guess are other artists.

Mm-hmm.

But then they get changed to Casanova, Don Juan, Romeo, and Travolta.

So after you've had a look at that and you wander around the big, wide sides down the middle of the altar and, oh, man, it's just, yeah, it's pretty special to see, isn't it?

Yeah, well, it's got a lot of paintings by El Greco, who was a Toledo citizen.

And they've got Cavaggios and Goyas.

They basically got every best artist of the time, didn't they?

I was going to go see one painting only.

El Greco, Toledo.

I was going to go there for one painting.

El

There I was going to go see the great...

Toledo by

El Greco, but I didn't go and it was too crowded.

But the food stands in front and this and that and the streets and the babies and this.

I'm thinking, man, this is amazing.

How do I know this guy? Why have I not heard of this guy? His name is Valdez Leal, and he was a follower of El Greco.

And his later work was not so amazing, but these two paintings were amazing.

And I came back to that thing of like, how come? Why have I not heard of him? Is it not good? That was the thing.