The Alcazaba: Not to be missed. The remains of a medieval Moorish fortification, it is a maze of lovely archways and some splendid palace rooms and courtyards with burbling Moorish fountains and pools. The view of the city and mountainous coastline from its walls and the adjacent Gibralfaro fort uphill are breathtaking.
Center for Contemporary Art (CAC): You can skip the Picasso Museum as well as Carmen Thyssen and head down past the market to this converted warehouse... a huge space with a great collection of local modern artists, including Málaga native Chema Lumbreras, whose whimsical little people (and the occasional bunny) are so lifelike you expect them to jump down and run away...
While I was there the museum was offering a major retrospective on the performance artist Marina Abramovic. Her recent works, stark photographic self-portraits, are amazing...
There was also a room inhabited by menacing over-sized cartoon figures created by KAWS. Here I am with the biggest one. Not Michelangelo's David, but worth a look-see...
My favorite painting was by Peter Halley. The photo does not do it justice: the light green square is in a stucco-like texture, which contrasts with the flat day-glo intensity of the surrounding stripes and creates an unsettling depth...
My favorite piece overall was a video work by Bill Viola, "The Innocents." You can watch it on YouTube, although it is mesmerizing and gorgeous in person...
The view from the back of the building... so cool.
The cathedral: The Renaissance exterior is lovely... the interior... eh... but there is an exquisite carved choir by Pedro de Mena...
... and there are some very fine paintings, especially this Madonna of the Rosary by Alonso Cano. The pyramidal composition suggests that our eyes should be drawn to the lovely and colorful Virgin herself at the apex, but inevitably the composition pushes our attention downward to the receiving saints, each set off against a column, who are awestruck to the point of supporting one another hand to shoulder. Wonderful.
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