More Spain Photos

A church in Seville:

A giant mushroom structure in a square in Seville, supposedly the world's largest wooden structure.  A folly of some kind, to be sure, and a delight to encounter.

Decorated walls and ceilings in a palace in Seville, in the same style as the Real Alcazar:

A small square at night in Seville:

In Cordoba, a garden.   I thought the French were the only ones who liked to wrestle their gardens into unnatural shapes:

Many buildings in Seville have these very nice window/porches:

Trees in a garden in Cordoba:

The cathedral in Granada, painted white

Shiny pavements in Granada at night

The organ in the cathedral in Granada

The Royal Chapel in Granada, home to the tombs of Isabella and Ferdinand:

View of the Sierra Nevada from Granada:

In Cordoba, a restored 14th century synagogue:

Detail:

More in Lisbon

In no particular order...

We saw this amazing former movie theater, the Eden Theatre, built in 1931.   Unfortunately, it no longer operates as a theatre, but is now a hotel.   But the facade is great...

The large square openings in front were apparently used for giant movie posters of some kind

What could this be?

It's the main train station...

The Church of San Roque, which shows that the Portuguese can do over-the-top decoration too.

The tile guy in the church was being very creative when he did these:

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: