Eyes that seek the Unseen
In downtown Lisbon there is a a Doll's Hospital were some experts repair and restore collectible dolls, some of them highly priced. A visit to the premises is somehow creepy, the dolls are always associated with small children and seeing their parts spreaded around is quite impressive.
At Art’s Garden, an exhibition of fabric decoration made from plant leaves and stems, using the natural properties of plants to leave marks on the texture of the fabrics. Some mannequins, or their parts, helped to compose the set. A few of them called my attention.
An exhibition of photographs by Daniel Blaufuks at the Museum of Architecture Art and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon. I selected two of many photos exposed. A few hundreds of small instax photos, isolated or paired, with hand-written, printed or glued captions.
From the introductory text by João Pinharanda :
“We created time and immediately felt hemmed in and devoured by it. Memory is a betrayal of time. We have always tried, without success, to escape it, to negate its erosive influence – a Sisyphean task in which Blaufuks, who exposes to the world the weight of the myriad epochs and memories (family, personal, historical, political, cultural, …) he carries, participates.
Some more information here https://maat.pt/en/event/daniel-blaufuks-days-are-numbered
I have just finished two oil paintings. Two examples of too much imagination – deserving a much better painting technique…
”The Acrobats” (oil on canvas) with three ascending figures coming from nowhere and pushing themselves upwards.
And “Thaurokathapsia” (oil on plywood), a modern imaginary version of a lost Minoic art.
The Acrobats
Taurokathapsia
Some more sketches from a recent live model drawing session
And a beach bench at sunset – it lacks a model sitting there
Saturday afternoon, South bank of the Tagus. People gather there to meet, eat and drink.
Some people prefer to be left alone. A moment of rest to settle ideas and feelings
Others choose to dance. A group of friends, or more probably an informal dancing class. They bring their own music and dance in pairs. One of them directs the others, giving instructions before each music sometimes correcting their movements. They seem to take this quite seriously – but they share and communicate a lot of joy.
Some people make and play their own music…
… while others sit and talk, probably about the good old times
An exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the April Revolution and the end of the colonial wars in Africa. Seven artists created images on very large semi-transparent canvases, installed in the abandoned buildings of the largest ship repair industry in the Lisbon area.
There is visible light from the roof windows coming in through the canvases.
From “The Man with the Blue Guitar” by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), a fragment from part XIV.
“…A candle is enough to light the world,
It makes it clear. Even at noon
It glistens in essential dark.
At night, it lights the fruit and wine,
The book and bread, things as they are.”
For those interested, the complete Wallace Stevens poem inspired, in the seventies, the series of etchings “The Blue Guitar” by David Hockney – well worth to be seen.
June 13th was Lisbon’s municipal holiday – and that day coincides with the date of birth of the painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992). There was a celebration at the Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva museum and in Amoreiras Garden, in front of the museum. As I passed by I noticed a group of children watching a puppet show.
It’s nice to see children looking at a something alive instead of being mesmerized by a screen…
There is a small beach on the Tagus bank, between two cliffs, just west of the 25th April bridge. In the XIX century there was a soap factory there, today only its ruins remain. To get there it is necessary to take a steep path, not easy to find. At the river level we can found two chimneys, parts of the brick walls, lots of rubble and the opening of an old furnace. The place is invaded by briars and thorny wild weeds. The pillars of a former pier are still visible protruding from the water. Some fishermen take advantage of that place, they keep there a small boat and their fishing gear.
Reviewing some old negatives from more than 15 years ago, I found some images from the salt pans of the Tagus South bank. They seemed abandoned then, probably they are now out of business. But old tools and machines were still there, and also the big salt mounts – as if the people working there had suddenly gone away. Some boats were on the river – and seagulls too, of course…
Trafaria is a small fishing harbour on the South bank of the Tagus. It is the last river port before the sea. Fishermen use small motor boats to place or bring in the nets that they leave overnight at the mouth of the river, or in the sea near the coast. There are always some of those boats arriving or leaving. A huge silo was built by the water, and big cargo ships often stop there to be loaded with grain. It is not a tourist spot but it is a pleasant place to take a meal by the river. Seafood is excellent and the restaurants, although not very sophisticated, are very popular.
Just by chance I was surprised by a book of drawings by the poet Sylvia Plath, edited by her daughter Frieda Hughes . High quality drawings most of them in pen and ink on paper, also some pencil sketches, made in England, France, Spain and the U.S. Sylvia Plath had art tuition in her teens and she used to draw during her life – many of her poems were said to inspired by visual artworks. One of her drawings
Harbour Cornucopia, Wisconsin (from Sylvia Plath drawings, edited by Frieda Hughes, Faber & Faber, 2022, London, U.K.)
This drawing brought to my mind one of her poems
A Winter Ship
At this wharf there are no grand landings to speak of.
Red and orange barges list and blister
Shackled to the dock, outmoded, gaudy,
And apparently indestructible.
The sea pulses under a skin of oil…
The complete poem can be found here https://allpoetry.com/A-Winter-Ship
My long-time friend João Spratley is an excellent writer. He wrote a series of short texts in the form of traditional Fables, and asked me to illustrate them. This resulted in a short book, in French, that was published in 2021 (“Le Sourire du Chat et autres historiettes”). In the same line, we have just published a second (and last) book of Fables, also written in French (“Le Dernier sourire du Chat”), and also illustrated by me. I created a page Books im my main menu joaoavelarnet.org/books/ where you can find more details
João Avelar images 