On June 2 2009, the Magritte Museum opened its doors to the public on the Place Royale in Brussels. The first museum devoted to one of the best known artists of the 20th century, presents for the first time the largest collection of Magritte works in the world. “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”
Activities
David and Alice Van Buuren, art patrons and philanthropists, used funds from the fortune that David made in the financial services industry to build a magnificent Art Deco house and outfit it with exquisite gardens and valuable works of art. Check it out.
I would never imagine that one of my favorite museums in the world would be found in the city of Brussels. An impressive collection consisting of 3,177 original musical instruments from all over the world are beautifully showcased in one of the most prestigious 1900s buildings in the city.
Designed by Tokyo-based architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, the New Museum building is a home for contemporary art, an incubator for new ideas, as well as an architectural contribution to New York’s urban landscape.
This city’s name is spelled so many different ways –Tzefiya, Safad, Zefat, Sefad. A rather small town located in Northern Israel, 900 meters above sea level in the mountains of the Upper Galilee, it commands magnificent views east to the Golan. If you see any of these on your itinerary, (for long a well kept secret even to most Israelis) it’s a place you’ll want to visit.
This grand Mosque built in 1695 by the emperor Shah Jahan on a natural rocky outcrop, took six years and 5,000 workmen to construct at a cost of nearly a million rupees. It accommodates up to 20,000 people at prayer times especially during Friday prayers and on Eid, it looks like a sea of worshipers. Barefoot, I am climbing my way up to one of its minarets.
One night in Delhi has passed and I am feeling like I am missing something extremely important. Whenever I close my eyes and concentrate on the city’s energy, I can’t avoid connecting with a certain elegance present in its austerity, discipline and asceticism.
Commissioned by Shah Jahan (Taj Mahal) in 1639, it took nine years to build one of India’s most important building complexes- This seat of Mughal power encapsulates a long period of Indian history and its arts, its significance transcending time and space.
Capri is a rocky mountain rising from the sea, dotted with build-up areas and villas immersed in the typically Mediterranean vegetation. A slow erosive process allowed the sea and the Sorrentine Peninsula to squeeze in. But it also caused the formation of free-standing rocks and spectacular natural marvels.
Mucha exercised his greatest influence through his Encyclopaedia for Craftsmen (1902) a catalogue of Art Nouveau decorative elements , forms and designs whose precise drawings and sketches in small shelves are absolutely superb.
Strahov Monastery is of great importance in the history of the Czech Republic. In 1989 its archives housed over 6 million items. The Strahov library contains over 900 thousand volumes and 300 thousand works of expressive art.
Most commonly known as the Reggia di Caserta, this Unesco-listed pad is considered one of the greatest and last-achievements of Italian Baroque architecture. It also where Tom Cruise shot scenes for Mission Impossible 3 and where George Lucas filmed the interior shots of Queen Amidala’s royal residence in Star Wars Episode 1.