Houses in the Modern Collection and Kum Kapi carpets - Temporary exhibitions at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisboa - 19th of June 2016

I managed to see two temporary exhibitions at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum where I spent part of the morning last Sunday. One of them was on Houses in the Museum's Modern collection and the other one on carpets.

 

 

The one on houses included rather different approaches as to what houses are, whether they are chaotic spaces or intimate dwellings filled with memories. I took a few photographs, all of which related to the latest referred approach. I was impressed by the photo installation on wooden tables, called Botanica. I couldn't help noticing the fact that had all of those portraits had been clearly taken in former Portuguese colonies and depicted the superiority of the settlers as opposed to the slave servants.



Quiet Time - 1985 oil on canvas by Esperanza Huertas (1925-2014).

A ladder in the corner - 1982 oil on canvas by Manuel Amado (1938).

Untitled series of acrylic painted on wood canvases by Jorge Varanda (1953-2008).

Digitalised metal-framed photographs on wooden tables by Vasco Araújo (1975)

The one on Kum Kapi carpets, whose name is associated to a district in Istambul where in the 19th century  various Armenian master carpet makers ares said to have settled to create richly knotted silk carpets inspired in the Classic Persian carpets was equally insteresting.  The exhibition displayed carpets made by two different Armenian artists - Hagop Kapoudjian (1870-1946) and Mekhitar Garabedian (1977) in what be called a "dialogue" between tradition and its reinvention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paris - Around the 16th Arrondissement; the Museum of Marmotan Monet - The 31st of May 2016

Upon having reached Roissy I left my suitcase at the World baggage service so as not to travel into the city with much more than the backpack and the necessary things for the one day stay at Anick and Claude's, whose house I reached with a tremendous difficulty due to the limited RER service, which had me jump from the RER to the tube, amidst mobile phone messages to Annick in regards to orientation.

I knew Claude had become an avid artist since his retirement but I had absolutely no idea how good he was until he gave me one of the artistic pieces he had made and showed me some others he had spread around the house, from Roman tiled canvases to sculptures and paintings. I must say I was really impressed and more so when I realised he was a keen cook as well, and that every meal I had whilst I stayed with them was made by him.

Soon after lunch Annick and I went out (I had to borrow one of Annick's coats as Paris had been flooded in the previous days and it was still quite cold) and headed towards the Musée Marmotan Monet, which I had never been to.

The temporary exhibition L'Art et l'enfant was on display and Annick and I really enjoyed it - The paintings under this theme were varied and particularly well chosen  so as to cover various peridods, but apart from those I was really impressed with the house that holds the private collection, as well as some of the collection's artefacts.  It was a pity I wasn't allowed to take any pictures.

Once outside and under the extraordinary guidance of Annick I was "introduced" to the architecture of the area, which I was impressed by, especially some of the architectural details which reminded me of Gaudi's.

Paris wasn't "at its best" due to the incessant rain that had forced the river waters to raise and had led to street flooding. I actually walked with sandals covered up in water up to my ankles in some parts ... something that had never happened to me, let alone in Paris even in the Winter time.

Back at Annick and Claude's I was greeted by their daughter and grandchildren who had come to meet me prior to having had dinner, once more cooked by Claude.

I can't help saying I was spoiled like a little queen. Despite the floods and the bad weather, not to mention the strikes, which fortunately didn't affectmy flight back home, I really enjoyed my short stay in Paris.