Thursday, June 9, 2011

Papiroflexia o Pinturas Andaluza

The Bellver Collection evokes the Andalucia of Carmen, its paintings by her native and not-so-native sons fill the walls of two galleries at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. Romance, in the art history sense--señoritas flashing dark eyes from behind their mantillas and abanicos (fans). Zurbarán, Becquer, Murillo, Gonzalo Bilbao. . . Iterations of popular culture well into mid-century modern.



A museum guard mans the desk at the entrance, folding minute pieces of paper. Origami nazarenos. Costumbres populares. Paper folded, formed.