Same Years | Different Perspectives

Fourteen years after the death of this illustrious collector his wish was fulfilled, when the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, specially built to house his collection, opened in Lisbon.

Federico Syd Ascia

Last week I had the opportunity to visit with a friend one of the most important private art collections, The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. As soon as we reached the main entrance in the garden outside, we could feel the intensity of the place, the importance of the moment, as if suddenly our souls automatically assumed an attitude of devotion and respect.

The museum presents a structural geographic subdivision relative to the continents, allowing the visitor to fully immerse himself in unique, different, and autonomous environments, thus giving the visitor the possibility to generate a thought that builds comparisons and expectations between the different areas visited. The evocative atmosphere is the main guide during the visit to the museum. The visual impact is extraordinary and makes it easy to internalize an enormous quantity of artefacts and works of art, observing the different currents of artistic development over the years and in different regions of the world.

But what I found most interesting and inspiring was to observe the development of different artistic perceptions in the same historical period. This observation showed that our total perspective is extremely influenced by the context we live in and the presence of others around us. This applies not only to an artistic discourse but to any aspect of our lives, personal and professional. Just think, for example, how often we take details personally that other people have not even noticed. This affects our emotional sphere all the time and is also reflected in the realisation of business projects. What this artistic visit taught me, almost unexpectedly, was the importance of the concept of allowance. A quote from mindfulness master Ram Dass sums up the concept perfectly:

When you go into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees and some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens and some of them are — whatever. And you look at the tree, and you just — allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is the way it is, you sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way, and you don’t get all emotional about it, you just allow it. You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that, and you’re constantly saying, “You’re too this,” or “I’m too this,” or — that judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees, which means appreciating them just the way they are. — Ram Dass