The Billionaire's Museum (Part One)

I realized that there is a major Mexico City art museum which has not been mentioned on this blog.  I visited it a couple years before I started writing the blog, and I have not been back there because I did not care for it that much.  It is the Soumaya Museum which houses the art collection of Mexico's richest man, billionaire Carlos Slim.  Last week I decided to go back there to see whether or not my opinion has changed.  It hasn't.

I took a taxi to the museum which is located in an area of the ritzy Polanco neighborhood that was largely developed by Slim himself.  The modern building was designed by Slim's son-in-law, and is covered with aluminum tiles (which were manufactured at Slim's aluminum factory).

The interior consists of the lobby plus six floors which are connected by stairs and a winding ramp.  Most visitors take the elevator to the top and then continue downward.

On the steps is something which is indicative of the level of taste in this museum... a bronze copy of Michelangelo's "Pietá".  Numerous critics have asked why one would want to display a BRONZE copy of a world famous sculpture which was done in pristine, white marble.

I went to the top floor of the museum which is a sculpture gallery.  It has the world's largest collection of sculptures by Auguste Rodin outside of France.  The majority of the works are casts of the originals.  That in itself is not a sin... many museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, display casts of original sculptures.  The sin is the way in which those works are displayed...

The works by Rodin and other sculptors are all presented crammed together in an incoherent hodge-podge.  One critic described the sculpture gallery as a very clean warehouse.

"The Three Shades", a 1989 casting of a 1901 work of Rodin

"Colossal Head of Pierre de Wissant",

a 1974 casting of a 1889 work by Rodin

"Bust of Victor Hugo", 1883,

an original plaster sculpture by Rodin

"The Wrestlers",

a copy of an ancient Greek work by an anonymous 19th century 

Italian sculptor

Heading down the ramp to the next level there was a special exhibit called "20 Centuries of Art in Mexico".  This was probably the best part of the museum, although this too was a messy and uneven conglomeration of everything from a few pieces of pre-Hispanic art to Mexican coins and currency to kitschy paintings that were used as calendar art.

There was a collection of landscapes of the Mexican countryside, but most of those were done by obscure European painters visiting Mexico.  There were a few pieces by my favorite Mexican landscape painter, José María Velasco. 

This painting by Velasco, "The Valley of Mexico from the Hill of St. Isabel" hangs in Mexico City's National Museum of Art.  Either this is a copy that the artist did, or it was borrowed for the exhibit from the National Museum... and the curator did not bother to give credit.  It makes me wonder how many the works in this exhibit are from Carlos Slim's collection.

There are some works of religious art by important painters of the colonial era, such as  "The Vision of St. Teresa of Avila" by Cristóbal de Villalpando.

The date for the painting is given as anywhere between 1649 and 1714, in other words, anytime during Villapando's adult lifetime.  Again, it seems like sloppy curating to me.

Some of Mexico's major 20th century artists are represented.

Gerardo Murillo, better known by his pseudonym of Dr. Atl, painted this large canvas simply entitled "Landscape".

The trio of famous Mexican muralists, José Clemente Orozco, David Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera are all represented.

"Landscape with Three Women and Maguey" by Orozco 

A study for a mural painted by Siqueiros for the Rectory of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Sketch for the lost Diego Rivera mural, "Nightmare of War, Dream of Peace"

The mural has an interesting history.  It was one of Rivera's last works, done in 1952 during the Korean War.  It was commissioned by the Mexican government for an exhibition in Paris, but his completed work was rejected because of its anti-American, pro-Communist theme. No one knows for sure what happened to the 40 foot long mural.  Some say that Rivera gave it to Mao Zedong, but that it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.  Others say that it is hidden away somewhere in Moscow or in Poland.  

In the sketch, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong are portrayed as benevolent seekers of peace.

Across from the Communist dictators, Uncle Sam, John Bull and Marianne (the symbol of France) scowl with disdain.

Meanwhile, Rivera's wife, Frida Kahlo, collects signatures for a peace petition.

We will continue down the ramp to the other galleries in the next post.