Fin-de-siècle

The Magritte show is on level -4. We then descended to levels -5 through -8 for the Fin-de-Siècle museum. Again I was struck by the geometry, space and architecture that museums always exhibit as much as the art they display.

Square du Petit Sablon, Brussels

From the Pl Poelaert we walked on to our appointment at the Horta Museum, where phones, cameras, and bags are strictly forbidden and toured the fascinating dual building. Afterwards, we walked past the Palais d’Egmont (Egmont Palace) and into the Square du Petit Sablon. Click the images above to see them full sized and with descriptive captions (you may need to click the post title first to access on the web site if you are seeing this in email).

Hotel Room Views, Brussels

We spent last week in Belgium as tourists. We walked around Brussels for a few days, then took a train to Ghent for a day, a train to Ostend the next day and Bruges the day after that. Then we shifted to Antwerp for a few days. Lots of pictures coming up, many of them just touristy snapshots and postcard images. I will attempt to weed out too many you could just see in a guidebook and focus on those with a slightly more artistic or, at least, I hope, interesting perspective. As always, click on any image to see them all full sized (if you’re getting this in email you may need to click through to my site first by clicking on the post title, above).

Roman Wall and Rougemont Castle

Whilst in Exeter we also walked some of the ancient Roman Wall and through Rougemont Gardens and Northernhay Gardens to the remains of Rougemont Castle. Click any image to see them all enlarged.

Beaney House of Art and Knowledge

Back in the High Street, we visited the Beaney House of Art & Knowledge. While in America we tend to revere the Magna Carta (statues of them above) for expanding the rights of the people, in fact, the Barons were wresting power from the King with no regard for the ‘people,’ beyond their own right to exploit them.

Once again, I confronted a museum mirror, this one with a sign encouraging photography adjacent. What else could I do? Click any of the pictures to see them all big.

Photo, Sculpture and Painting

Victor Brauner, Conglomeros, 1945. Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris

In Plato’s cave allegory we are bound and can only see images of the shadows cast by statues of real things. As we free our minds, we first discover that we are looking at mere images, shadows. Next we discover that the shadows are cast not by the real but by statues, imitations of the ideals which they represent. Only when we emerge from the cave do we discover the world of real things.