Very modern and, to be perfectly honest, a somewhat hilarious collection of artifacts that if they weren’t in the museum, might be mistaken as random items in the street. I guess it takes a renewed sense of intellectual appreciation and patience to fully understand what makes some of these masterpieces “art” instead of arbitrary ensembles of video, three-dimensional objects, and hectic displays of paint.

I visited recently the Center for Modern Art for the first time since the remodeling planned by the new (English) director of the Center. The exhibition seems to be built to demonstrate that Portuguese twentieth century art is a subsidiary of the English art of the same period, which is a complete nonsense. The reality is much more complicated than this. At the beginning of the 20th century Portuguese art was mainly influenced by French art, as demonstrated by the fact that most Portuguese artists studied in Paris for some period of time. The advent of fascism profoundly changed the situation: official Portuguese art approaches the Italian fascist and German nazi styles while leftist artists adopt a communist-inspired realism. After the war, Portuguese art evolved in the direction of a growing cosmopolitanism, with French and, above all, American and more recently German influences. Today Portuguese art is cosmopolitan, like that of any other country. The CAM transmits a false image of modern and contemporary Portuguese art, which is unfortunate since it is one of the Portuguese modern art museums more visited by foreign tourists

We began with the historical art from Egypt forwards. Stunning pieces from each era were in that collection.

After an excellent lunch break at the cafeteria we walked through the delightful gardens to the modern art museum. Terrific sculpture collection as well as a lot of modern (from early 20th century) paintings. There are other unique temporary exhibitions (there was a scientific one when we were there) and a historical library.

Very unique collections worth at least a half day.