The Berardo Collection

We went to see the José Berardo Collection in Lisbon.   This is an astonishing collection of 20th century art, assembled by the eponymous Portuguese billionaire, and housed in a giant new cultural center in Belem.  Entry is free and without fuss (you simply walk in), and the museum is spacious and crowd-free.   It includes representative work from just about everybody in the post-1920 era, as well as interesting work from a lot of people I have never heard of.   If this museum was in New York, it would be a major attraction; if it was in Vancouver, it would be the star attraction of the city.   But, at the end of Europe, no one knows about it.   If the collection has a drawback, it is in the idea of representing every post WWI art movement.  Each movement gets a room; as you proceed you watch ideas ebb and flow, but you wonder about the works that might not fit into their assigned slot.   And by the end, when you get to rooms like the "traumatic realism" room, it is a bit too much.  But no complaints here; we stopped for lunch in the middle of our viewing at a nice outdoor cafe overlooking the river.


A great painting from Victor Brauner:

Joan Mitchell, my favorite abstract expressionist:

A James Turrell work, which I had all to myself for quite a while: