The Carl Larsson Portrait Collection, Carl Larssons porträttsamling, Sundborn, Sweden The portraits are of local citizens who were involved in keeping village life ticking over. Larsson painted these ‘fine villagers’ for the parish of Sundborn, and donated the portraits to the village in 1916, with the condition that they remained there and were not moved. This has clearly been a struggle,…
Museum of Cultures, Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland Having realised that I’d not written about the Museum of Ancient Art, I also realised that I’d not written about the excellent Museum of Cultures. Silly me. The museum has its origins in the 1840s, when artworks and artefacts collected by travellers and merchants were donated to the city. Over the years,…
Sun, Moon and Stars Exhibition, Museum of Culture, Basel, Switzerland The excellent Museum of Culture regularly holds exhibitions which help to highlight certain themes within its collection. When I visited, they had an interesting exhibition which looked at the way the universe shapes people on earth – from the way we create calendars, to the gods we worship. Because of the…
National Museum, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden When I last visited Stockholm in 2015, I was disappointed by the fact that the National Museum was closed for renovations. Then in October 2018, I saw on our French news that it had finally reopened. They showed images from the fine building, the paintings, the Carl Larsson frescos, and I wished I could visit.…
‘Shahidul Alam: Truth to Power’ Exhibition, The Rubin Museum, New York It’s not often that I visit photography exhibitions any more. There was a time when I was a student in London when I was quite into it. But then I decided that actually, most photographers were more interested in themselves than in their subjects and that was reflected in…
Ancient Agora of Athens, Αρχαία Αγορά της Αθήνας, Athens, Greece Athens is full of surprises. It had those sites which you know are going to be great to visit – like the Parthenon and its museum as well as the National Archaeological Museum – but then you have unexpected delights, like the museum at the Ancient Agora. The museum is housed…
Downtown St Michael’s Church, Belvárosi Szent Mihály-templom, Budapest, Hungary On the bustling pedestrianised shopping street of Váci utca is the dainty baroque church of St Michael. It’s not exactly the sort of place you’d expect to find among the stores selling Hungarian dolls and various fabric objects with ‘Budapest’ emblazoned across them. And it’s a nice break from all that.…
Kerameikos Archaeological Museum, Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Κεραμεικού, Athens, Greece If you have spent any time looking at the funerary stele at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, you will have noticed that many were found in Kerameikos – the ancient cemetery of the city. Over the years, my interest in stele has dipped in and out, but when I visited Greece…
Kerameikos, Κεραμεικός, Athens, Greece One of the most atmospheric spots in Athens, with the natural landscape and the smattering of stones, is the ancient site of Kerameikos. The fact that it is nestled in a largely residential area, with its big apartment blocks, actually helps to make it even more of an oasis for those of us in search of…
Hadrian and Athens: Conversing with an Ideal World, Exhibition at the National Museum of Athens, Greece A small exhibition in the Archaeological Museum in Athens highlighted portrait busts created during the rule of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. The exhibits are all from the museum, but by placing them all together, you get to see portraits from a specific era, which…
Benaki Museum, Μουσείο Μπενάκη, Athens, Greece In a beautiful white neo-classical house near the Greek Parliament and government offices, there lies a vast collection of beautiful and fascinating objects which show off the glory of Greek life through the ages. This is not a state museum, underfunded and showing the need for investment, but a fine example of what all…
…continued from Part One… The incredible collection of statues in the National Archaeological Museum shows the continuation of the Greek efforts to create three dimensional figures, first to depict deities, then to commemorate individuals. I know that a lot of people don’t like Archaic art – that is, the style that was in vogue before the Classical style, which is…