For a Valentine

Token of Affection

A selection of my work available especially for your valentine, at Art For The Heart, Cambridge Contemporary Art's romantically themed exhibition. Art For The Heart closes next week. A selection of similar work can also be found at The Rowley Gallery (here).

Romance I

Gesture I

Coronet (Gold)

Art For The Heart
Cambridge Contemporary Art
6 Trinity Street
Cambridge
Mon-Sat: 9-5.30
Sun: 11-5
T: 01223 324222
cambridgegallery.co.uk/contact/

The Berardo Collection & Museum of Design

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

MUSEU DO DESIGN E DA MODA
Francisco Capelo Collection
RUA AUGUSTA Nº24 - 1100-053 LISBOA

The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum

One of the main reasons for choosing to visit Lisbon was the opportunity to revisit the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. It is a fantastic collection of art and design amassed by Armenian oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955), that covers virtually all phases of Eastern and Western art. Visitors walk through the collection chronologically and encounter amongst other items Egyptian carvings, beautifully designed and minted Greek coins, the wonderfully coloured and patterned Iznik pottery and Persian carpets.

The Egyptian and Assyrian carvings were so delicate and skilfull.

Sorry, couldn't resist these Japanese lacquered butterflies.

Boy Blowing Soap Bubbles (1867), by Edouard Manet, was a highlight of the painting collection.

These are some of the fantastical creations by design genius René Lalique (1860-1945). This man's imagination and creativity was something else. I don't think his work has been surpassed in the field of jewellery design. He was such a visionary, and one can only imagine the wonder and delight his work was met with when he unleashed it on the public at the height of the Art Nouveau movement. The Cockerel Head tiara below is stunning.

The last room of the Gulbenkian Museum is dedicated to his work and I was eager to visit it to see the Peitoral- libélula, or Dragonfly Lady brooch which was the prime inspiration behind my own Dragonfly series of works. It was absolutely huge for a brooch, and I can imagine anybody fortunate enough to be wearing it would have felt quite uncomfortable in case they broke it. It was a real privilege to see it, and I felt inspired all over again. She is so beautiful!

Weirdly enough after leaving the Gulbenkian I headed into the old town, and in a courtyard being renovated up by Lisbons' Castelo, I came across this huge pair of dragonfly wings just randomly hanging aloft. I don't know why they were there. Were they perhaps part of an artist's installation? Or rescued from the buildings in the courtyard which were undergoing renovation? No matter, they were beautiful, and a timely, serendipitous find having just visited my dragonfly muse.

These remaining pictures are of the lovely, peaceful, landscaped grounds of the Gulbenkian, and Museum of Modern Art (which is just across the gardens). The Museum of Modern Art currently has an interesting exhibition about Robert and Sonia Delauney's stay in Lisbon from 1915-17, and their influence on Lisbon artists, which closes on 22nd February.

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
Centro de Arte Moderna
Rua Dr. Nicolau de Bettencourt
1050-078 Lisboa
Portugal
http://www.cam.gulbenkian.pt/