... in Abu Dhabi, is impressive - not first for its collections, but the museum building itself.

As I remarked in an earlier post, from the Isaac Newton I had a tantalising view of the domed roof of the museum off in the distance, but that gave no hint of the extraordinary complexity of the structure.

Eight layers of aluminium stars are overlaid to form the roof...

... and tidal pools built into the basements are woven into spaces in and around the twenty-three galleries. Wikipedia has a page describing its construction.

Luca Giordano. 'Christ Driving the Merchants from the Temple' 1684

That the museum is in a Muslim country was, from the outset, not to influence the curation of the exhibits, neither was the collection to be purely occidental. The encouragement of a dialogue between East and West was the museum's purpose.

Abel Grimmer. 'Tower of Babel' 1595

I skipped through a lot of the exhibits from early civilizations (stopping only to ponder the two paintings above) in a bid to get to the 19thC and 20thC works before the museum closed.

Théodore Chassériau. 'Ali Ben Ahmed, the last Caliph of Constantine' 1845

Chassériau was a pupil of Ingres, but later on in his career adopted a style more aligned with Delacroix. Portraiture, allegorical, and religious paintings were his forte.

Paul Cézanne. 'Woman with a Coffee Maker' c. 1895

She has the same hands as Cézanne's 'The Watchmaker'. (See 'If I Remember Correctly' August 2018.)

Gustave Caillebotte. 'The Bezique Game' 1880

A particularly good group with the added amusement of the chap sitting at the back, seemingly uninterested in the game.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir. 'The Cup of Chocolate' c.1877

I'm not a great fan of the Impressionists; I think they've been done to death, but no self-respecting museum would be without a handful of the usual suspects, even if the works are of lesser import.

Claude Monet. 'Wind Effect.' 1891

There's a row of poplars just like this along one of the farm tracks.

Pablo Picasso. 'Woman with a Mandolin' 1911

If you squint, you can just make out the woman and the instrument. Picasso's viewpoint was from the mandolin's headstock.

Cy Twombly. 'Untitled I-IX' 2008

The other five panels were on an adjacent wall. I came across Mr Twombly's decorations in Oct 2017 (see 'Critique'). From this museum's notes: "Neither calligraphy nor graffiti, Cy Twombly's 'pseudo-writing' is an infinite work of rhythmic movement. Emotional urges give rise to deft, defined lines that evoke the pure sensation at the heart of both painting and writing." I would have put it differently - and promptly lost my job.

Sori Yanagi 'Butterfly Stool' 1954

One of my two take-home picks in the museum...

Christopher Dresser 'Decanter' 1892

... this being the second. Genuine art has a voice of its own; it doesn't need explanation.