Above: Clams and mussels with oricchiette in pumpkin sauce at Trattoria da Antonio
Loosen your belt because I’m squeezing our reviews of meals we consumed in Catania into one post. Alas, no more than one cannolo though.
The alphabetical list starts out with Bat il Trattore. Tucked away in the Monserrato neighborhood where few tourists would ever stumble upon it, we were the only customers on the simple backdoor patio who were not longtime acquaintances of the mom-and-pop owners. But they made us feel welcome.
During a trip in Kabataş, a woman claimed that she and her baby were attacked by about ten half-naked men…. She held a demonstration on the balcony of a hotel in Paris…. It was impossible not to relate with the half-naked show of Femen girls….”
Above: Translator (left) and Esra Carus during “Grief. Law. Prohibition,” Depo Gallery
We wandered around the streets of the Tophane to Depo Istanbul without much of a clue about what art we’d encounter inside the former tobacco warehouse, renovated in 2008. We were met with “Yas. Yasa. Yasak,” or “Grief. Law. Prohibition,” and immediately were struck by strong, strident imagery.
Above: Postal art incorporated in a collage by Louis Pons.
Above: “Les Fleurs et le Matin,” Alfred Lombard (1884-1973), 1913
I kill time with the strokes of the pen…. It will take a long time.”
Louis Pons (1927-2021)
A palace built at the tail end of the 17th century by wealthy trade merchants was acquired a century later by the artistic son of a stonemason. With a ready supply of fine marble at hand, Jules Cantini’s (1826-1916) attraction to sculpture was only natural. He designed altars for some of Marseille’s most important churches.
1894 “Monument des Mobiles” funded by Jules Cantini.
Retaining the profitable marble business of his father, Jules began to assemble a major art collection. For his native city, Cantini underwrote the construction of a landmark fountain and memorial designed by architect Gaudensi Allar (1841-1904) and dedicated to the citizens who perished during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.
Cantini bequeathed his home to the Marseilles for use as a museum dedicated to decorative arts. The city opened the museum in 1936, eventually spotlighting emerging trends in French art from 1900-1980. A random sampling of works are found below.
Postcards from Barton Springs 