Monday, June 02, 2025

Modern Art in Lisbon


CAM Gulbenkian (May 19th)
The Centro de Arte Moderna has a new show, "Paula Rego e Adriana Varejão – Entre os vossos dentes" (Between Your Teeth). The renovated CAM is still in its first year since re-opening, so we are curious to revisit and see how CAM's staff turns over its installations. The show's two artists are Paula Rego, who we know very well, and Adriana Varejão, who is new to us. The exhibition is arranged in a series of partitioned 'temas' (themes), with the subtitles listed below …

"Memórias de açúcar e sal" (Memories of Sugar & Salt)
Rego's "Vasto mar de sargaços" (2000) faces the entrance to the first tema'; it includes a large canvas and a smaller 'predella'. The images illustrate the novel Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1996), a prequel to Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847) which re-contextualizes the character of Bertha Mason, the 'hysterical' woman locked in the attics of Mr Rochester's manor and who later sets the house ablaze (note the burning tree beside the house).

Varejão's "Passagem de Macau a Vila Rica"(1992) places Portuguese churches atop the mountains of an old Chinese ink painting, as well as a mill in the valleys of Brazil, plus a blob of paint that looks as if she dropped the dripping heart of an animal on the surface. This sets up a series of twists in which we are made to rethink familiar visual tropes, often involving the subjugation and violence Portugal's colonial dictatorship.

"Comemos, dançamos, matamos e misturamos" (We Eat, Dance, Kill & Mix)
Though built as separate 'islands', the openings between the temas suggest a path. Varejão's "Tintas Polvo" (2013) and "Polvo Color Wheels" (2018) dominate the next space. The Wheels look like experiments in color until we read the names (a sampler):
Branquinha – Snow White
Cabocla – Half Breed
Morenao – Big Black Dude
Mulatinha – Sweet Mulatto Miss
Polaca – Polack
Rego's "Mãe" (1997, no photo) and "Carga Humana" (2008) are on the side and facing walls and give these colors a human presence and narrative life.

"Apesar de você" (In Spite of You)
Varejão's 'bloody' wall papers serve as a background for Rego's "A sina de Madame Lupescu" (2004) and "Salazar a vomitar a Pátria" (1960).

 

 

 

"Mar, onde sou a mim mesma devolvida em sal, espuma e concha" (The Sea Where I Am to Myself Given Back in Salt, Foam, & Shell)
Rego's "Sirenas voladoras" (2017) fly overhead; they are haunting mermaids with dark, battered wings and toothless faces. Around the room, Varejão's over-sized chargers, such as "Mãe d'Água" (2009), "Prato con mariscos" (2011), and "Ama Divers" (2011) make offerings of seafood and fruit, as well as the people who harvest them.

Varejão's "Pérola Imperfeita"(2009), with its bright yolk and divers in the translucent egg whites, is next to Rego's "O Pescador" (2005), a monstrous angler wearing a grotesque 'minstrel' mask.

Rego's "Figo" (Fábrica de Faianças Artísticas Bordallo Pinheiro, 2017) is on the other side of the doorway; it is a recreation of a plush sculpture executed in ceramics. The 'biology' is recreated in astonishing detail.

 

 

"Faca amolada" (Sharpened Knife)
The tile wall in Varejão's "Parede com Incisões à la Fontana" (2002) is cut open like the spent set of a slasher movie. The slasher appears to be Rego's "Anjo" (1998), with her enormous blade, cleaning sponge, and petrifying smile.

"Rituais de limpeza" (Cleansing Rituals)
The smaller, more intimate images are just as terrifying. Varejão's "A malvada" (2009) provides more evidence of evil, again, without naming the deed. And Rego's "Sem Título Nº 7" (1999) shows the deed, while letting us fill in the title.

"Câmara de ecos" (Echo Chamber)
In Varejão's "O Sedutor"(2004), we are invited to step into the tiled washroom, unsure if we are too late – or worse, too soon.

"Corpo em transe" (Body In Trance)
In Rego's "Possessão" (2004), we feel the psychological damage as a patient struggles to sit still in five nearly life-sized drawings.

"Fui terra, fui ventre, fui vela rasgada" (I Was Land, a Womb, a Torn Sail)
We finish in another room like "Apesar de você", covered with Varejão's papel de parede (the web site suggests this room as the show's starting point). Rego's "A primeira missa no Brasil" (1993) depicts the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil, but focuses on the pregnant woman, wide-eyed in anticipation and fear, and gesturing to the Cross. While Varejão's "Mapa de Lopo Homen II" (1992-2004) attempts to stitch the wounds but cannot heal them.

The show is veracious, almost brutally so – maybe not the best for a relaxing day of art, but the artistic and curatorial storytelling is urgent and powerful.

 

 

 

To take the edge off, we wander across the garden to the Museu to see "Arte Britânica – Ponto de Fuga", a retrospective of British art from the last century. The show has an easy energy and explores the figural, the abstract, and the liminal; it includes many favorite artists (even Rego, who worked in London) …

For example, "Picture Emphasizing Stillness" (David Hockney, 1962) and the series "Konstruktion [Kestnermappe 6]" (Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, 1922-23) both display an ethereal balance of diagonal motions to very different effects.

In the same way, "Rudol 333" (Kurt Schwitters, 1939) and "The Vivian Girls as Windmills" (Paula Rego, 1984) offer two ways to express a churning, swirling playfulness.

Finally, "Dokumentarfilm [Doshi, 12. April 2003, 13.34 Uhr]" (João Penalva, 2004) and "School - Classroom" (Mark Wallinger, 1990) present empty spaces where enigmatic light seems to animate the stillness. If that's a projector lamp, we must be the show. 

 

 

 

MACAM (June 2nd)
The Museu de Arte Contemporânea Armando Martins is housed in the recently renovated Palácio dos Condes de Vila Franca (early 18th century). 

The Permanent Collection fills the two wings of the Palácio; the Museu describes this as "Uma coleção a dois tempos" (a collection in two stages) …

"Arte Moderna Portuguesa"
The first gallery begins with the early days of the República Portuguesa and the Estado Novo aligning with the entreguerras. These painting give us a flavor of the places and people that carried the optimism of that time. "Música Surda" (Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, 1914-15) offers hints of Cubism and Fauvism. "Diligência no Terreiro do Paço" (José de Almada Negreiros, c1938) is an Art Deco influenced study for a mural of a stagecoach disembarking at an arcade on the Praça dos Restauradores.

The "Sinfonia da Tarde" (Júlio dos Reis Pereira, 1924) and "As Três Graças" (Sarah Affonso, 1930) extend the collection's stylistic reach into Expressionism and Primitivism; yet both pieces reflect the influence of Portuguese arte popular (folk art).

The "Páteo de D. Fradique" (Carlos Botelho, 1946) and "Le Retour d'Adonis" (Manuel Cargaleiro, 1972) bring us to the end of the dictatorship and are deeply personal interpretations of essential Portuguese imagery: the Páteo near the Castelo de São Jorge and the ever-present patterns of azulejos.

 

 

 

On a prominent end wall and with precisely shuttered lighting, "Maio de 68" (Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, 1968, top image) marks our arrival in the abstract. Its disposition is gritty and urban, but with a sense of twilight or maybe sunrise.

"Fernando Pessoa" (Júlio Pomar, 1985) and "As Três Graças [Naked Lunch #35]" (Miguel Branco, 2019) deliver us into the present day with dazzling color and light. The Graças provide a glittering and grisly echo to Afonso's trio and dance under the dome of the Palácio's old bread oven.

 

"Arte Contemporânea Nacional e Internacional"
The "Casa Luis Barragan 3" (Juan Araujo, 2010) reconnects to the liminal sensibility from the Arte Britânica show: a painting of a photo printed in a book, between inside and out, with dappled sunlight, and an Albers 'Square' painting. A searing haze overwhelms "São Paulo #1" (from the series "Rua Stan Getz", André Cepeda, 2012), as if we are microscopically zoomed into the Albers.

The leafy shade and intense heat prepare us for the next room, where we spend quite a long time with "Wildfire [Meditation on Fire]" (David Claerbout, 2019-2020, sample here). It's a singular piece that ought to be experienced live and at scale (video from Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 2020) – equal parts meditative and horrifying.

 

Wildfire (Meditation on Fire ) at Kunstmuseum Winterthur 2020, Studio David Claerbout

Rego's "The Knight, the Lady and the Priest 2" (Paula Rego, 1984) gives more connective material; in Rego's oeuvre, this series follows the "The Vivian Girls" from Arte Britânica. "Untitled [two stones]" and "Untitled [lion king]" (from "Red Series [Military]", Rosângela Rennó, 2000 and 2000-2003) take those flat red graphics, and the vague religious and military 'shadows' in a different direction.

"Paisagem Nº77" (Lucia Laguna, 2014) bring elements of the cityscape into the gallery. While "There is always Something More Important" (Mariele Neudecker, 2012) and "Blossom #8" (Pedro Cabrita Reis, 2024) spill into the courtyard between the Museu and the Hotel. The Hotel also features a stunning, ceramic brise soleil by Maria Ana Vasco Costa.

 

 

After a casual lunch in the Hotel's cafe, we depart the Palácio and cross the street. From this side, we can see that the Hotel's elevated outdoor spaces contain more large sculptures, the "Pilha Pesada de Cinco Metais" (Angela Bulloch, 2024) and "Untitled" (José Pedro Croft, 2023).

Hearing about this complex, a hotel and a museum, we expect to find a little gallery off the lobby. But this is an impressive collection, professionally presented, and as substantial as the palace. It's a concise but complete retrospective of twentieth and twenty-first century art, with a unique lens on and from Portugal.


 

Sunday, May 04, 2025

Emilia-Romagna – Pinacoteca Nazionale


Before our departure from Bologna (pop 390,850 in 2024), we squeeze in a visit to the Pinacoteca Nazionale (17th century). Near the Via delle Belle Arti, we pass a street-art mural painted in a faux arch; the subject is the Canale di Reno (just a block or two away), complete with painted inhabitants.

This is a preview for the Pinacoteca, which is famous for its frescos. It's housed in an old convent, the former Noviziato Gesuitico e Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio. The ceiling mural over the stair hall, "Gloria di Sant’Ignazio" (Giuseppe Barbieri, 1660/75), is a remnant of its previous incarnation.

The gallery show drops us into the late medieval, with some lyrical imagery. The "Visione di San Romualdo" (Maestro dei Polittici Bolognesi, c1329) is the dreamy sight of white-robed monks climbing to Heaven, in unearthly pinks and gold. The surreal portrayals continue with "Crocefissione e i santi Giacomo, Bartolomeo, Agostino e Stefano" (Maestro dei Polittici Bolognesi, c1340), with the wily, mask-like faces.

The figures in "Gesù Cristo crocifisso e dolenti" (Dalmasio, 1335/40) seem to float on the gilded background, at the top of the Cross is a stork's nest and a dragon in the distance. The figures in the "Madonna col Bambino, angeli e il donatore Giovanni da Piacenza" (Simone di Filippo, c 1378) convey wildly contrasting scales.

 

 

 

The two leaves of the "Storie di Cristo e Santi" and the "Storie della Passione" (Maestro di San Nicolò degli Albari, c1320) further divide into ten panels and read exactly like a comic book. 

Two triptychs exemplify the idea of a mobile altarpiece: "Trittico" (Dalmasio, c1390) and "Santi Pietro e Giovanni Battista. [in alto] La Vergine Annunziata" (Jacopo di Paolo, 1400/10). The central panels appear to work like inserts between the side leaves. The presentations, while still fantastical, fit the architecture of the triptych, and are full of amazing detail and portraiture. Note the 'Jacopo di Paolo' piece is signed, and the patron still appears as a smaller dark figure underneath le scale di San Michele.

The gallery is dominated by the"Crocifisso [Croce sagomata col Padre Eterno, l'Addolorata, San Giovanni e San Francesco]" (Giovanni da Modena, c1415). With the bloody Jacopo di Paolo Crocifisso fresh in our minds, we are struck by the unusual 'laser show' in the lower trefoil – San Francesco evidently receiving the stigmata from a glowing, red angel.

 

 

  

Finally, we reach the gallery room with the "Polittico [Madonna col Bambino e Santi]" (c1330), an altarpiece painted by Giotto for the Cappella Magna del Palazzo Apostolico. Almost shocking in its simplicity and clarity, the Polittico contains four saints, labelled: Scs Petrus (keys), Scs Ghabriel (scroll, "Ave gratia plena"), Scs Micchael (defeating dragon), and Scs Paulus (sword).

The predella is used as a platform separate from the five panels, portrait inside the roundels (left to right): San Giovanni Battista (pointing to the Child), la Madonna (blue cape), il Cristo della Passione (center), San Giovanni Evangelista, and Maria Maddalena. The Polittico represents Christ in His early youth and in His passing.

Sharing the gallery with the Polittico, the "Giudizio Universale. [in basso] Cristo con i simboli della Passione" (Maestro della Misericordia, 1360/65) is stiff and almost cryptic in its symbology, suggesting perhaps a path toward someone like Hieronymus Bosch. But with the "Última Cena" (Andrea di Bartolo, c1420), we truly arrive in the Proto Renaissance and begin to see an attempt to represent a 'realistic' architectural setting. Judas, unconcerned and looking away at the opposite end of the table from Christ, even appears to be smoking (?).


 

Coming out the small gallery, a docent notices our excitement and tells us not to miss Sala 21. We assume he means there's more Giotto, so we head back to Sala 21, where we find "L'Orlando Furioso [Gli Affreschi di Palazzo Torfanini]" (Niccolò dell'Abate, c1548, relocated from Via Galliera), a series of Late Renaissance fresco fragments illustrating the poem by Ludovico Ariosto (published 1516). The frescos are a series of Ionic archways at sunset, decorated with floral swags and monumental sculptures.

"Alcina riceve Ruggero nel suo castello" is on the left side, in which the evil sorceress Alcina plies her magical beauty on our hero, Ruggiero; next is "Ruggero fugge dal castello di Alcina", where he escapes the sorceress and heads to the kingdom of Logistilla. "Ruggero diretto al castello di Logistilla" is on the right wall, where just enough remains of the panel to see Alcina's fleet (blinded by reflected light?), and the cannon fire from the castle. Finally, "Battaglia fra la flotta di Logistilla e quella di Alcina", Alcina's broken ships scatter, and the triumphant Ruggiero enters the castle.

An intriguing installation, but we think the docent has very specific different tastes. We're unsure of the connection to Giotto, but perhaps the poem is a local favorite, and in all cases, virtue prevails.

Making our way back through the gallery we revisit the "Crocifisso [Croce sagomata con la Madonna tra Angeli, San Francesco e Sant'Elena]" (Jacopo di Paolo e Maestro dei Crocefissi Francescani, c1254) which is reminiscent of the Crucifixes by Cimabue (S Franciscus reappears at the base of the Cross). The "Madonna in trono col bambino fra i Santi Girolamo e Petronio" (Lianori Pietro, 1453, full image) includes an excellent portrait of San Petronio with a large architectural model of the Due Torri. 

There are additional suggestions of Bosch-like imagery in "Paradiso e Inferno" (Maestro dell'Avicenna, c1435) and the wonderful "Trionfo del Tempo" (Zanobi di Benedetto di Caroccio degli Stozzi, 1440/45) – notice the towers and hills reflected in "Tempo's" crystal ball.

 

 

 

We rejoin the Proto Renaissance in the Salone degli Affreschi Trecenteschi, where the frescos continue. The "Madonna col bambino e San Giovanni Evangelista" (Andrea de' Bruni, 1360/65, Ospizio di San Giuseppe / Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena) is from a ruined church, the current site of the Arena del Sol. The dramatic "San Giacomo alla battaglia di Clavijo" (Mestro della Crocefissione Campana, 1315/20, Chiesa di San Giacomo Maggiore) looks like an inspiration for the L'Orlando Furioso cycle.

The "Última Cena [e i santi Caterina, Ludovico di Tolosa, Antonio da Padova e Raffaele Arcangelo]" (Vitale da Bologna, c1340, Convento di San Francesco) spreads across the entire far wall. Though much of the work is faded, there are salvaged areas of striking beauty and pathos.


 

 

 

Up a small stair, we enter the Early Renaissance. The "Polittico della Certosa" (Antonio e Bartolomeo Vivarini, 1450) builds on Giotto's legacy, though loses some of the strength of his simplicity. On the other hand, it's a treat to see all the finials intact, and the 'bay window' with the wounded Christ and the Annunciation on either side – again, the beginning and the ending of His life's story.

Another "Annunciazione" (Nicolò di Liberatore detto l'Alunno, c1482) stands nearby, with sharply constructed architectural perspective.

The spirit and theme of 'rebirth' is also expressed in the"Madonna in adorazione del Bambin Gesù, San Giovannino e due angeli" (Giovan Francesco da Rimini, 1460/65) and the diptych of the "Annunciazione" and the "Visitazione della Vergine e Sant'Elisabetta" ('Ignoto pittore della Germania meridionale o fiammingo' / unknown, c1480).

 

 

We being to run out of time and hurry through the rest of the Renaissance galleries, some highlights:
Somewhere in the galleries, we miss a large painting by Raffaelo, but we move on.

 

 

 

Before catching our train, we make sure to see the "Gli Affreschi di Mezzaratta", frescos from the Chiesa di Santa Apollonia di Mezzaratta (13th century). These are primarily by Vitale da Bologna ("Storie di Mosè e Giuseppe" and "Il Presepe", center and left wall – Espitle side) and Simone di Filippo ("Storie della Vita di Cristo", right wall – Evangelist side).

The central image under the opening for the rose window is the "Presepe" (Nativity). This enormous fresco is from the church's 'back' wall, behind the front facade (as explained here). "L'Arcangelo Gabriele" and the "Vergine Annunziata" (upper left and right) are on either side of the rose and form the Annunciation. The "Sogno della Vergine" and the "Discesa di Cristo al Limbo" and the lower left and right wings add elements of the story foretell and follow the primary narrative subjects.

On the left-hand side, upper register, "Giuseppe Prediletto dal Padre" and "Giuseppe Calato nel Pozzo" (Jacobus) tell the story of Joseph, as he is favored by his father and thrown into the well. In the lower register, "Strage degli Idolatri" (Jacopo Avanzi) and "Consegna della legge" appear to be two episodes from the story of Moses, who is shown with horns. Continuing in the lower register, "Punizione dei ribelli al sacerdozio di Aronne" (Jacopo di Paolo) and "Il Ritrovamento della Coppa" (Jacopo del Biondi) may be out of sequence but complete the Old Testament cycle.

On the right-hand side, many of the frescos are worn. But the central panel in the lower register,
"Guarigione del Paralitico" (Simone di Filippo), represents Christ's miracles, framed by a wrap-around architectural arcade like a theatrical stage.


 

 

 

On our way to Bologna Centrale, we pass the Basilica di San Giacomo Maggiore (13th-14th centuries), the Basilica di San Martino (13th-16th centuries, facade 1879), and the Colonna della Beata Vergine del Carmine (Andrea Ferreri, 1705).

Each portico or piazza adds another vignette to the story, though now covered with posters or filled with bicycles. But the shades and shapes of the backdrop remain eternal.