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OCA Lisbon Study visit: 24th to 28th February 2020

I was privileged to attend an OCA Study visit abroad for the second time, (the first on was Copenhagen in 2018), so I knew it would be a very useful experience. We were 13 students from different paths and levels at the OCA - Textiles, Painting, Fine Art and Illustration, accompanied by two tutors - Michelle Whiting and Diana Ali.

Before the trip we were in contact - initially through Padled, and then through WhatsApp, which enabled us to coordinate transport-sharing and get to know each other.

Day 1 - Monday 24th February

At Heathrow Airport I met Martine for the first time, who was taking the same flight as me, and on arrival at Lisbon we met Annette, who was arriving from Lyon, and Susan, who was arriving from Holland, and the four of us took a taxi to our hotel and base in Cascais, about 30 minutes from Lisbon.

After a quick wash-and-brush-up, we met some of the other students in the hotel restaurant, and as for most of us this was the first time we had met we made our introductions, went for an enjoyable dinner, and retired to our rooms

Day 2 – Tuesday 25th February

We met Michelle and Diana at the hotel reception at 10am for a briefing

After which the event started with an interesting walk along the picturesque and inspiring Cascais streets and beach, and these are some of the pictures I took along the way -

After the stroll we took the train to Lisbon to visit the museum of modern and contemporary art - Museu Coleção Berardo - at the Belen Cultural Centre, and on the way to the museum we passed some of the interesting features of the city including the “ Praça do Império with its magnificent fountain.

Praça do Império - Lisbon

Before our guided tour of the museum we had a light lunch and spread out around the Praça to do some sketching.

Michelle and Diana had told us at the briefing to “try to get the essence of the place”, a concept which I found very difficult, and after thinking hard I concluded that maybe I didn’t have the sensitivity to get the essence of a place, as I normally do portraits. For me places are often very personal - it all depends on what you like, what interest you, your state of mind at the time etc. Although I think there are often explicit features that the majority of people find aesthetically pleasing, or perhaps unpleasant, sad or grotesque, I didn’t get any strong feelings about this spot. Eventually the long line of people queuing to get tickets for the Jeronimos Monastery caught my eye, a view framed by two trees in the middle ground, with some girls playing on a bench in the foreground.

Praça do Império - Lisbon

After our sketching we went to the museum for our guided tour, passing a 1968 sculpture - L’Arbre Biplane, by Jean Dubuffet, France 1901-1985, at the entrance to the museum. I found this piece of public art very interesting because it has the shape of a tree and the feel of an indigenous totem pole which for me is normally a cultural symbol. The piece made me very curious about what we would find inside the museum.

Museu Coleção Berardo - Portugal

Our three-and a-half-hour guided tour was very instructive. My feelings toward modern and contemporary art have always been split between things I like and find interesting, even if they are not aesthetically pleasing, and things that I don’t understand and therefore don’t care for. After the explanations of our incredibly knowledgeable guide and curator of the museum, Jorge Caterino, however, I found that the key word on this was “understand” and by understanding the political, social or personal situation of the artist the works often started to make sense.

This is in line with my reading of the book Beauty & Art by Elizabeth Prettejohn in which she writes about the art historian Johann Winckelmann, 1717 - 68, considered the father of art history. Winckelmann wrote about ancient art, times from which very few works of art survive, and the link between the works and the political and social freedom of the artist. He said that every artist’s work is in response to the political, social or personal circumstance of the time the work is made.

The museum has works from the 1960’s to the present day, and presents the works in sections by genre - Dadaism, Cubist, Constructivism, Surrealism and so on, and one aspect in particular that caught my attention following the explanations of our tour guide was Constructivism – an art movement born after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the destruction of social classes - which made artists question themselves about their role in society.

Constructivism had its roots in Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematism – focused on basic geometric forms, and Vladimir Tatlin’s Counter-relief sculptures. These artists rejected artistic creation based on commissions by individuals in favour of manufactured objects with social meaning, in an attempt to effect a transformation of society.

Without this explanation the works I was seeing wouldn’t have communicated anything to me other than very pleasing geometrical shapes and drawings. Some of the works presented were -

Composition series by Llubov Popova 1917-1920, Guoache on paper

Composition series by Llubov Popova 1917-1920, Guoache on paper

El Lissitzky, Russia 1890-1941

Proun Study 1920 Pencil and gouache on Paper.

El Lissitzky, Russia 1890-1941 Proun Study 1920 Pencil and gouache on Paper.

Proceeding through the genres we saw works by artists such as Mondrian, Picasso, Henry Moore, Giorgio Morandi, Ana Mendieta and Cindy Sherman, and a temporary exhibition by Joana Escoval – Mutacoes, The Last Poet. Some of the work we saw here was:

For me the highlight of the tour was the video performance and photography of Jemima Stelhini, Lewis Amar and Larry Bell-glass sculpture.

Photo Perfomance No30, 2005, Video 41'

At first I thought this was a video of one of Marina Abramovich’s performance works, possibly because of the physical resemblance between the two artists, but as I kept watching I realised how different the works of the two artists are. Abramovich’s work is about endurance, human reactions and feminism, and sends messages to empower women, which I really like. The work I was watching, however, was about women’s submission and objectivisation, showing the artist Lewis Amar manipulating the submissive naked body of Jemina Stelhini. For me it was a very powerful but disturbing piece of work, and even though the work tries to address aspects of women’s reality in society it made me angry and quite unsettled watching it.

If the success of a work of art really is substantially related to the level of response it elicits in the viewer, I have to conclude this was a very successful piece of work given the effect it had on me.

After basking in three hours-plus of the expert knowledge of the guided tour we went back to Cascais by train, and the majority of the group went for a dinner organised by Diana and Michelle. Unfortunately, however I was suffering from a heavy cold, so I went back to my hotel room – and enjoyed this beautiful view from my window before going to bed early.

Day 3 – 26th February

After breakfast we met again at the hotel reception, and our main destination this day was the PADA Studios, a local artist residency and gallery in the city of Barreiro. We took the train to Cas do Sodre station in Lisbon and walked along the coast, passing some interesting sights on our way to take the ferry -

In less than 30 minutes by ferry we were in Barreiro for our visit to PADA Studios, passing a quite derelict industrial city which evoked a mixture of beauty and sadness, magnified by the almost total absence of people in the streets. Pictures I took here were:

This city full of beautiful derelict buildings was an artist’s dream, though I couldn’t stop thinking about what the local population must feel about this ghostly, abandoned part of their town. We all took photographs of the endless display of rusty and disused but beautiful and interesting textures and features - memories we could hold onto, to be used as inspiration for future work.

I was reminded of my reading of the Beauty and Art book which talked about the historian E. Kant, 1724-1804, who wrote his aesthetics theory in his book Critique of Judgement, and the paradox that sometimes human beings can evaluate an object without reference to the purpose it may serve. He wrote -

'The delight we feel, in the contemplation of beauty, arising from the feeling that our mental faculties are free play; they are not impeded or curtailed by the limits of our knowledge, the need of our physical bodies or the demand of our consciences'

My reflection of this was that now-a-days, in order to be successful, a contemporary work of art should consider both sides of this paradox - to be able to display beauty but at the same time imply something about the reality to the viewer

I show below some of the many pictures I took of rusty metal and old concrete - covered in graffiti - ranging from quite basic symbols to elaborate concrete carved portraits -

I couldn’t of course resist having my photo taken with the bronze monument of Alfredo da Silva by the sculptor Barata Feyo – my thanks to Ashley Mclaughlin for taking the photo -

PADA Studios is situated in the Bahia do Tejo Industrial park - a restricted area which we got special permission to explore.

On arrival we were greeted by Tim Ralston who co-runs the project, and he gave us a tour of the Studio and the Gallery, and it was very interesting meeting the artists in residence and seeing their work in the process of creation. Some of the work we saw -

After the tour we explored the disused part of the industrial park, taking pictures of everything that caught our eye, and these are some of the pictures I took:

We also had time to sketch in situ, and this is my sketch and photo of my subject -

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After our visit to Barreiro we took the ferry back to Lisbon, and we split into two groups to explore Lisbon - one led by Diana and one by Michelle – and I joined Michelle for an exploration of central Lisbon.

After walking for some time we sat in a café and Michelle asked us to look around, listen, and try to feel our surroundings, and to then write a few words about what we experienced. This was a sunny afternoon, which I normally associate with colourful clothing – but the people here were dressed mostly in black, which produced very mixed feelings in me, so I simply wrote – sun, dark, bright, relax.

Michelle then asked us to sketch something based what we saw and the words we had written, and this is my sketch of a couple relaxing having a cup of coffee - wearing dark clothing, though the reflexion of the sun on them made them look lighter -

From the cafe we went to a typical Portuguese restaurant and here are some pictures I took on the way -

The restaurant had live Fado music, which is quite mournful, reminding me to the people in dark clothes in the café, though we did have a delicious dinner before returning to the hotel for the night.

Day 4 – 27th February

Our destination was the ‘Casa das Historias’ museum of Paula Rego’s work, and the very impressive building designed by the architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, with two pyramid-shaped towers in terracotta over the entrance – modern, but at the same time reflecting the ethnic aspects of the Cascais region.

Casa das Historias

Michelle pointed out something important that we hadn’t realised - that this museum is one of the few - if not the only, museum dedicated to a female artist, which made me feel very proud and empowered.

We had a guided tour of the museum which was mostly of Paula Rego’s sketches and drawings, and the puppets and props that she made as models for her work, and this is some of what we saw –

After our tour we had the opportunity to sketch some of Paula Rego’s work and I chose to sketch the lithograph ‘Sala de desenho de modelo vivo I/life room I’, 2005.

Life room I’, 2005

I chose this one because, although Rego’s work is normally a mix of representational, cartoonish and imaginary characters, often in a grotesque and sometimes unsettling style, there is a tenderness to this work which I really like. It shows a caring act to a helpless person represented as a rabbit.

After the explanation by our guide, and from my research on Rego, I believe the rabbit represents her husband; the artist Victor Willing. The woman helping him is Lila Nunes, his nurse and Rego’s main model, who helped Rego to take care of Willing in the final years of his life. Lila helped Willing produce his artwork, hence the pen and paper on her hand, and they are being watched by a lady and a girl who I presume represent Rego and one of her daughters, or perhaps Rego and her mother. My sketch -

When we left the Casa das Historias we gathered in the garden and had a session in which we shared our sketch books. It was very interesting comparing our work and seeing how different it all was, considering it was all done in the same places we’d visited in the four days.

We were encouraged by Michelle and Diana to think about what we’d like to take forward from the sketches to develop further, which I found quite difficult, as I normally do sketches only as observation exercises not as composition tools. For my compositions I usually use photography and computer technology, manipulating my images until I get something I like.

Rather than develop something from the sketches, I'd prefer to develop my work using the knowledge acquired during the visit - what I learned of the concepts, movements and history of art through the ages, taking into consideration the political, social and personal freedoms of the period, and allow this to inform my work and my decisions.

After the session we went to the picturesque Parque Marechal Carmona across the road, where we did more sketching, some of us in groups, for collaborative works -

Parque Marechal Carmona 1

I however, preferred to explore the park and found an interesting fountain with a Greek sculpture to sketch -

Parque Marechal Carmona 2

My Sketch

After the sketching session we walked through the park to the Museu Condes de Castro Guimāraes and these are some of pictures I took on the way -

The Santa Marta Lighthouse Museum was nearby, and once again we spread out on a beauty spot to sketch.

Michelle and Diana came to each of us to ask questions about what we were sketching, giving useful suggestions on how to develop our ideas, and I decided to sketch the Lighthouse.

The Santa Marta Lighthouse Museum

I tried to replicate Monet’s technique as researched in Part 5: Different ways of applying paint - to paint the light on the water using broken marks in dark, middle tones, and white for the highlights, though I had to adapt the technique to pastel pencil as that was the only medium I had available at the time -

Sadly, after this our trip was nearly finished. Only time for a coffee and a walk through the marina, and then back to the hotel for a short rest before our final delicious Portuguese dinner arranged by Michelle and Diana. Then an exchange of ideas and experiences and back to the hotel to pack ready for our return home the next morning.

Baia Cascais -Portugal

Very many thanks to Michelle and Diana for organising this super, very productive Study Visit, and thanks also to Nicola, Andrea, Penny, Martine, Helen, Alison, Annette, Stevie, Susan, Kate, Ashley and Bea, for making the visit such an enjoyable experience. I'm sure we'll keep in touch for months or maybe years to come.

Reference

Prettejohn, E., 2005, Beauty and Art: 1750–2000, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

https://www.cascais.pt/equipamento/museu-condes-de-castro-guimaraes

https://en.museuberardo.pt

http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/

https://www.padastudios.com/residency/artists


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