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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Art "transportation" supplement - Portugal

Something that I failed to include in my Portuguese art entry is all the intriguing public art, especially in their transportation system.  Most of it is ceramic (of course, it's Portugal), very large, and very visible; it is said that a great tour of current Portuguese ceramic art can be had just by riding their subway system.
The Mad Hatterish rabbit above was one of a series of very similar rabbits that graced the Cais do Sodre metro station, an "end of the line" station near where we stayed in Lisbon.   You can't tell from the picture here, but they were each about ten feet tall.

The five below are of ceramics at various other Lisbon subway stops.  (BTW, the Lisbon subway was a clean and efficient, and even I could understand every stop name when announced - Chicago EL drivers need not apply.)








Below, a ceramic mural on the exit/entrance of an auto tunnel in Porto, Portugal.







And to the left and below are pictures of the huge, mainly open air, modernistic Oriente train station in Lisbon (and once again, the Portuguese, and the Spanish railway systems are ones that we would do well to emulate in the US - fast, clean, efficient, smooth riding and always on-time).  The pictures show the open air hub area with tracks and boarding on the top floor to the right and left.



Lastly, below are several pictures of a fascinating, fishnet like sculpture that appears at first glance to hang in the air unsupported - in a roundabout on a fishing village's seafront area in Matosinhos, outside of Porto.  It is titled "She Changes" and was designed by Janet Echelman, an American artist.






1 comment:

Carol Gulyas said...

So amazing and wonderful; thanks for the awesome art posts.