VERSAILLES - PORTUGUESE FANTASY

The Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos is the first woman to exhibit at the majestic palace of Versailles (France) and its surrounding gardens and, at 40, is also the youngest artist to present her work there.

A few years ago she exhibited her works here, in Lisbon. I didn't miss it. Her work pictured below was one that impressed me the most. Yesterday, I read in a Portuguese newspaper, that Versailles didn't allow Ms Vasconcellos to exhibit it at the palace... Can you guess the reason? Probably, not. I'll tell you later....

 

Click HERE to make the tour of the Portuguese fantasy at Versailles

~~ Have a great weekend ~~

FORMER WEAPONS FACTORY WINS THE CULTURE WARS

A decrepit old factory in a not particularly attractive industrial part of the city has recently become one of Lisbon's most dynamic cultural spaces. Founded by two booksellers who for years staged debates, exhibitions and concerts in cramped premises in Lisbon's moorish quarter, the huge facilities host numerous events in its myriad spaces. You can find a bookshop, cinema, restaurant, bars and plenty of parking. Yesterday in the evening, I went there for a drink together with some friends. I had never been there before but I enjoyed the hours spent in a place so different from the usual. Good to see a building that might have been abandoned forever, turned into a versatile cultural place.

 

Within the old factory premises

 

 

Model of the former facilities

 

 

The bookseller

 

 The bar

 

 

Room for cultural events

 

 The original lavatory room

A WORTHY VISIT

                                      

Click the photos to see them enlarged

VILAMOURA

I like art in general and sculpture is one of my favorite art forms.
Having been in the Algarve (south of Portugal) during last week, I could not miss visiting Vilamoura and its archaelogical site, currently the stage for the first public exhibition of monumental works belonging to the Portuguese business tycoon and art collector Berardo.

The exhibition provided a diversified, balanced, formal and themed reading, extending from figurative and anthropomorphic representations to the most abstract and geometric, by way of the simplest and most metaphoric. Each and every one of them enriched by the permanent dialogue with the archaeological site that embraced them.
When viewed from different angles, the 20th and 21st century British sculptures by leading artists from the  History of Modern and Contemporary Art created a surprising effect. The collection represented the work of three generations of the most successful sculptors from the so-called 'New British Sculpture' movement.

On the left, you see Temple, by Allen Jones (1937). On the right, the Reclining Figure by Henry Moore (1898-1986).

 

Line of Thought by Tony Cragg (1949) and  Breed by Richard Deacon (1949)                                                               
                                                                                    

                                                            

Ace Diamonds by Lynn Chadwick (1914-2003)

Stairway by Danny Lane (1955)

Looking back by Zadock Ben-David (1949)

'Looking back' is my favourite... What's yours?

ONE MORE EVENING... ONE MORE EXHIBITION - SLIDE-SHOW

I have recently re-visited the museum Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, one of the very few galleries dedicated to a living artist. Since the Portuguese born painter didn't like the idea of a museum, it has been named House of the Stories.

I had been invited to the vernissage of a retrospective exhibition of the British artist and art critique Victor Willing (1928-1988), husband of Paula Rego, who played a prominent role at the Slade School of Fine Art (London).
As I had been told that Paula Rego would be there in person and I had never seen any work by Victor Willing, I did not want to miss the opportunity of being face to face with her, get familiar with Willing's work, either.
Willing's first Portuguese show gathers together about eighty paintings and drawings, some of them deposited by Rego at Casa das Historias collections and others loaned by various entities (Tate Modern, Pallant House Gallery, Southbank Centre, etc.).
For Willing, painting was a matter of objects endowed with palpable presence, and of color and light, embedded in the matrix of space and a moment in time, suspended between past and future. Quite different from Paula Rego, whose work fuses autobiographical passages and an attentive reading of the paradoxes of contemporaneity with timeless narratives.  The works from Paula Rego's personal collection were shown in a different room.
On the way back home, I felt some happiness for having seen pieces that are usually away from the public eye.

AS PROMISED - BRUSSELS - ARCHITECTURE & ART - SLIDE-SHOW

Back home from my trip, time has come now to disclose where I have been  for a few days.
My first stop was in the more than 1000 years old BRUSSELS, the bilingual capital of Belgium, whose street names and traffic signs are always in its two official languages, French and  Flemish.
Brussels is a cosmopolitan city where many different cultures live together and where different languages can be heard here and there. This liveliness and international flair is, of course, intimately related to its role as a crossroads for all of Europe.
The same variety and contrast can also be found in the different architectural styles: Gothic cathedrals and churches are next to - and sometimes in stark contrast with - gracious classical façades like the buildings around the Royal Square (Place Royale - Koningsplein), or beautiful art nouveau and art deco houses.
I was particularly impressed by the heart of Brussels, the Grand'Place. This historic market square with its splendid guild houses and the stunning Gothic beauty of the Town Hall, is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful town squares in Europe. I have no doubt about it.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY....

On the International Women's Day, my thoughts go to every woman who is mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend or woman, simply!
Thinking of Portuguese women, my hommage goes to the artist Joana Vasconcelos, whose 'Netless' exhibition I had a chance to visit yesterday. Enjoy a few photos of the many ones I took.

 

~~ ENJOY YOUR DAY ~~

BREAKING SILENCE THROUGH ART

We stroll down the street and the person ahead of us dumps something on the ground and we say nothing. Then we reach the corner and as we walk to cross the street a driver runs the red light and we repress an expletive. How many of us never report evident violations? How many citizens do not have the means to express their feelings or what aggravates them? Moreover, what could we all do to change this? Millions of people around the world go on with their lives as if muted… Every day, every hour, every minute… As if muted to themselves, to their neighbor, to their fellow man across cities, across borders, across continents.
If released, these silenced expressions could make a big difference in our lives. The lack of freedom of speech, or worse yet, our reluctance to grant others the opportunity to express their inner feelings has become part of our lives. What would happen if all of this changed?

The mexican artist Trevino got inspiration in those muted stories and created the exhibition 'Our Silences', which comprises 10  sculptures that aim to promote the introspection about the importance of freedom of speech.

Created using the lost-wax casting technique, all the sculptures are muted with a plate showing different inscriptions, which are replicated on their chests and backs. The public is to interpret what the sculptures are trying to tell and ultimately what the public itself needs to express.   With Our Silences Rivelino seeks to address most of the public. This is why the faces are sculpted with human features denoting different races, to allow people from different places to identify themselves with the pieces.

Our Silences involves all of us and will never go unnoticed. The exhibition's first stop in Europe started recently in Lisbon where it was exhibited in one of the most emblematic areas in the city. However, I had no chance to see, in Lisbon, Rivelino's artworks, but in Brussels.

REVISITING A MUSEUM (SLIDE-SHOW)

As some of you may know,  visiting art galleries and museums always gives me a great pleasure. 

Last week, during my short stay in Oporto, I found time to revisit the city’s main museum Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, the country’s first public art museum that was founded in 1833. 
The palace where the museum is currently housed was built in 1795 as home for a wealthy family. The architecture of the building was very much influenced by the neo-Palladian buildings designed by English architects based in Oporto. This influence explains the architecture of the building, which follows the neo-classical style that characterized late 18th and 19th-century architecture in the city.
The Museum has a vast collection mainly focused on Portuguese art of the 19th and 20th centuries, including painting, sculpture, furniture, jewelry, crystal wares, etc.  
The main purpose of re-visiting Soares dos Reis Museum was to see the exhibition called ‘DIARY OF A FINE ARTS STUDENT’ that showed works by Henrique Pousão (1859-1884), one of my favorite painters and simultaneously one of the most recognized Portuguese painters of the 19th century who never stopped being a fine arts student. Pousão enrolled in the Oporto Academy of Fine Arts at the age of thirteen and died at twenty five before completing his studies in France and Italy. Other pieces on display also caught my eye.

 

THE HOUSE OF STORIES: PAULA REGO

Paula Rego, 74, a Portuguese born but London-based artist is regarded as one of the world's greatest figurative artists.

 Her work – paintings, pastel drawings, prints – is often disturbing and challenge conventions, particularly those relating to women.

 

The art critic Robert Hughes considers Paula Rego "the best painter of women's experiences alive today".

A museum exclusively dedicated to her work opened in Cascais, a coastal town outside Lisbon. It was built from scratch and designed by Portuguese architect Souto Moura.

 

Since Paula Rego did not like the idea of a museum, it has been named House of Stories: Paula Rego.

 

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in the inauguration of  The House of Stories, one of the very few galleries dedicated to a living artist.

 

MY VISIT TO AN ART DECO EXHIBITION - SLIDESHOW

There are few terms in art history which have been used so haphazardly as "art deco". Art Deco is an essential decorative, eclectic and individualistic current which lacks formal unity, and so fails to qualify properly as a "style".

The term was invented in the 1960s to describe objects created in the 1920s, culminating in an art exhibition held in Paris, in 1925, where contemporary and modern design currents jostled for attention.
How can we describe this aesthetic? That is precisely the question, because its manifestations draw both on the tradition of exotic woods, refined metals and floral decoration but also on modern art, from cubism to early abstract works. This is also a movement that hesitates between art for the burgeoning middle classes and art with a social conscience.
Yesterday, I visited a large collection of furniture and objects that seeks to show Art Deco at its most successful, through crystal objects, pieces of furniture, etc.
Hope you enjoy the slideshow. Have a Good weekend

A DIFFERENT AFTERNOON...

Having a friend who is a painter is nice... diving into her world for a while is a great pleasure. I did it yesterday in the afternoon. It was a fine warm day, no wind (spring in Lisbon is normally very windy) and after 30 minutes of walk from my place, I was in another world... My friends'mansion surrounded by a colorful garden exhibiting the gorgeous signs of the season...

Click the pics to get them enlarged

The atelier up in a large mansard room in which I breathed a unique work environment... from every corner came a distinctive feeling, depicting her emotions, her way of viewing life, objects, nature.... every corner was stacked with her 'valuables', out of which this work,  which she had painted last year during the season of wine harvest, caught my eyes.

Late in the afternoon, I left her, with the belief that she was currently in a period of deep artistic maturity. As I was walking back home,  I enjoyed a glorious show of colour promising a fine day tomorrow on the golf course.

HAVE A NICE DAY