Last day in Bilbao

 Today we have our last full day in Bilbao before renting a car and driving down the coast. It's been a quiet  and lovely stay. The city presents a stark contrast to Barcelona, which seemed noisier, dryer, hotter, and - at least in many sections of the city - more frenetic. The Bilbao we have experienced has been cool, damp, and relatively quiet. 



Our lodging is in one of the thousands of apartments in apartment blocks that crowd the steep hills. This apartment block probably dates from at least 1960. The buildings in our area differentiate themselves by their different colors. Our block is blue. The next one is red. The neighboring block is yellow. And so on. 

Our first full day was at the Guggenheim Museum, a notable attempt at urban transformation. In 1991, Bilbao was a post-industrial city slipping into chronic economic depression, when the government of the region suggested to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation the plan to build an art museum in the city's run-down port area. The local government agreed to cover the construction cost of about $100 million and to created an acquisition fund of $50 million, pay a $20 million fee to the Guggenheim and then subsidize the museum's budget. With these terms in place, the Guggenheim Foundation agreed to manage the museum and rotate part of its collection through the new museum. 




The Foundation chose architect Frank Gehry to design the building, and his design is one of the most beautiful aspects of the museum. The building, which evokes the maritime character of the region, is constructed with an exterior of stone, glass and titanium. The undulating walls reflect the tones of the sky and its riverside site. 

The most striking exhibit for me was the series of huge sculptures made by Richard Serra. They occupy an entire section of the first floor. The sculptures are truly immersive, welcoming viewers into their interiors. In a certain sense, they are very accessible. There is no vocabulary of modern art needed to appreciate them. As Serra himself put it, the sculptures, entitled "The Matter of Time," concern the relationship of space and object. 






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