Cultural oriented weekends ...

I  do get enormous pleasure out of going to Art exhibitions and any other cultural venues, particularly if they are in accordance with my taste, though I have lately realised that the simple breathing in within any artistic atmosphere is important for my emotional balance ...

Among the several  temporary exhibitions I have been to in the last weekends, three have caught my attention for completely different reasons.



"Four centuries of European still-life painting" being exhibited at  Calouste Gulbenkian Museum presents a selection of works from the second half of the nineteenth century up to the mid-twentieth century, many of which are by leading painters, such as Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézane, Dali, Magritte, Matisse, Picasso, among various others, including some well known Portuguese painters like Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, Mario Eloy and Vieira da Silva.

The fact that they are  organized by themes allows the visitors to explore the diversity of the various approaches in a fairly different way. Inspite of not being very keen on still-life type of paintings, I must recognise that I loved the whole ensemble, having focussed on four of those twelve exhibiting sections though - "Reflections on presence", "A play of relationships - the still life as form" and "structure and space".      

The catalogue of  "Four centuries of European still-life painting".

"Frida Kahlo, her photographs" on display  in Pavilhão Negro of Museu da Cidade brings together 250 photographs collected over her life time. Some of those I had never seen published in any of the books I have (and I have most of her books or books that mention her). An excellent testimony about her life through the eyes of various photographers (her included), which clearly complements the previous exhibition held in 2006, which brought to Lisbon many of her works, not to mention the fact that it is very well structured taking into account the space.

The catalogues of "Frida Kahlo, her photographs" and 'Vik". 

"Vik" - the works of Vik Muniz on display at the Cultural Centre of Belém in Joe Berardo's Foundation was a complete surprise. Having recently watched his documentary film "Extraordinary Garbage", which really impressed me not only because of the quality of his garbage paintings but the idea behind the whole project in Rios' garbage dump Jardim Gramacho and the way it affected people, led me to the  Cultural Centre of Belém (twice), having realised that the photos of his work could actually be photographed. Using perishable materials is a challenge in itself, but Vik Muniz' creativity goes well beyond that.

Pictures of sugar by Vik Muniz

Pictures of ketchup by Vik Muniz

Picture of chocolate ("After Hans Namuth")

Toy soldier pictures by Vik Muniz

Jardim Gramacho garbage pickers - pictures of garbage by Vik Muniz

Pictures of paper (after Van Gogh on the left) by Vik Muniz