2016 Travel – Tip 14 – France – Toulouse Museums

The tip of the day relates to visiting museums in Toulouse.

Today, I saw the modern art in Les Abattoirs including a video installation of a man being followed by an ice-breaker as he crossed the sea ice. There were also photographs of a different man burning holes in icebergs with a blowtorch.

I visited the Fondation Bemberg art collection in the Hotel d’Assezat (where hotel means Hall in English) with their extensive collection ranging from Lucas Cranach the Elder to Giacommetti, via Tintoretto and Picasso.

The best place though was the Musee des Augustins and in particular the 12th Century Romanesque sculptures. It wasn’t the actual capitals that were brilliant but their presentation. The capitals were displayed on multi-coloured, plastic columns with a highly complex light fixture hanging from the ceiling above them. In other words, the capitals were fulfilling their original role in a modern way that illustrated their use rather than displaying them as dry museum exhibits. Brilliant idea with a lot of artistic flair thrown in for good measure.