I chose the right time to visit the Berardo Museum Collection in the Belém district of Lisbon. Apart from a couple of kindergarten school groups it was completely empty. Perhaps most visitors had chosen to visit other nearby attractions like the Torre De Belém, Padrão Dos Descobrimentos, or Monastery Dos Jerónimos, all equally worthy of a vist, or perhaps they had just chosen to ignore Beléms attractions and to bask in the wonderful sunshine instead. No matter, it was great to have the place - and all of that wonderful art to myself, and to be able to browse at my leisure.
The Berardo Collection was situated in a lovely modernist pink stone centre with a Dubuffet tree at its entrance. Photography, (without flash!), was graciously permitted. The following pics are a selection of things I liked from this comprehensive collection of the great and good of 20th century art. I challenge you to name that artist!
The upper galleries were a fabulous trawl through what seemed like familiar friends and acquaintances. The lower galleries however, were all devoted to the period 1960-1990, and were all about the Minimalist and Conceptual movements which developed during this time. Apart from the two pieces below I wasn't really engaged or visually excited. It was time to head back out into the sunshine.
After having visited Belém's other attractions - the Monastery is amazing - I made my way back into the heart of Lisbon to MUDE, the Museum of Design and Fashion. It housed a small collection of iconic design objects from the 20th C. The collection was interesting, but the real star was the actual museum building itself, which was a former bank stripped back to its bricks, mortar and concrete beams. I liked that they had retained some of the murals and marble from the original bank, as well as some of the lovely Lisbon wrought ironwork which I had been obsessing about on this trip. Wandering around MUDE was like being in the middle of a building site, and I would have loved the opportunity to explore further behind the scenes and to have seen the actual (long empty, sadly) bank vault itself. Unlike the Berardo collection photography was strictly forbidden at MUDE, but here are some anyway! (Wink!)
Museu Coleção Berardo
Praça do Império
1449-003 Lisboa, Portugal
www.museuberardo.pt
1449-003 Lisboa, Portugal
www.museuberardo.pt
MUSEU DO DESIGN E DA MODA
Francisco Capelo Collection
RUA AUGUSTA Nº24 - 1100-053 LISBOA
