Two Stores

Wednesday of last week I was looking at Google Maps and trying to decide on another long walk for taking my mind off of recent events.  I found a small shopping mall that I had never visited, and it had a Bed, Bath & Beyond.  There were a couple of things that I wanted to get for the kitchen, so I decided to check out the store and see what they had.

It was a nice, long walk to the mall which is called "City Shops del Valle".  (English names add a certain cachet to businesses, although I find it a bit snobbish.)

It is located in the upscale neighborhood of Colonia del Valle.  Although the northern part of Colonia del Valle is just across from Insurgentes Avenue where I live, the neighborhood extends quite a distance to the south.  It was a forty minute walk to get there.

(Notice that the Christmas tree is already up.)

I went first to the kitchenware department.  There were two things that I wanted... a vegetable peeler and a large glass baking dish.  Well, I discovered that Bed, Bath & Beyond is the same as in the U.S.  It should be called Bed, Bath & China.  They had at least a half dozen different peelers, but they were all made in China.  There were only a couple baking dishes, and they too were from China.  In fact, as I browsed through the kitchenware department, I would say that at least 90% of the merchandise said, "Hecho en China".  I continued on to look at bedding department, and at least there they had sheets, pillowcases and pillows that were "Hecho en México".  Most of the towels seemed to be from Turkey.  The only thing that I bought were a couple of nice, thick potholders that were made in India.  Why am I such a stickler about avoiding products from China?  First of all, the quality is often sub-par, and secondly, I prefer not to buy goods from a country that has such a horrendous human rights record.

I should add that last weekend Alejandro and I stopped at the Sears that is located at the World Trade Center.  There I found a vegetable peeler that is made in Switzerland (Yeah!) and a nice set of Anchor Hocking baking dishes made in the U.S.

Just behind the mall was another store that I wanted to check out... Hiperlumen. 

Lumen is a chain of stores down here that sell office supplies, stationery and arts and crafts supplies.  When you see the prefix "hiper" in front of the name of a store it means that it is super big.  I had  read reviews of the store on Google Maps, and some reviewers said that it was the best place in the city to buy art supplies.  The store did not seem that enormous, but it did have a pretty good selection of "Liquitex", a brand of acrylic paints (made in France) that I often used back in the U.S.  They also had the canvas boards on which I usually do my paintings.

So, I doubt if I will return to Bed, Bath & Beyond, but Hiperlumen will probably be the place where I will buy my art supplies.

  

A Trip to the Museum

The day after the election, I needed to get out of the apartment and get my mind off of the depressing news.  There was a special exhibit at the National Museum of Art that sounded interesting, so I took the Metrobus downtown.

The exhibit features paintings from the collection of Henry Pearlman, a New York City businessman who was a leading collector of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art.  Since his death in 1974, his collection has been in the Museum of Art of Princeton University in New Jersey.

Nine paintings from the Pearlman collection are on loan for this exhibit.  The European paintings are paired with contrasting paintings by Mexican artists.

"After the Bath"

by Edgar Degas

ca. 1890-95

The French impressionist Degas is known for his paintings a ballet dancers, equestrian scenes and also nudes.  This work displays his interest in movement and unusual positions.

"Nude Woman Sitting"

by Manuel Rodríguez Lozano

1926

Paired with the Degas is this painting by Lozano.  He was born in Mexico City to a well-to-do family, and briefly had a career as a diplomat.  During the Mexican Revolution, because of his father-in-law's role as a counter-revolutionary, he had to go into exile along with his wife and her family.  While living in Paris, he met and was influenced by painters such as Matisse and Picasso.

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"Nude in a Landscape"

by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

ca. 1887

Renoir, of course, was one of the most famous of the French Impressionists.

"Baroque Nude"

by Germán Gedovius

ca. 1918

In contrast to Renoir's Impressionism, this painting is done in a romantic academic style.  Gedovius was born in Mexico City in 1867.  He was deaf and mute, and when he was twenty, his father sent him to Germany for medical treatment.  There, doctors were able to restore his hearing, and he learned to speak.  After studying art in Europe, where he was influenced by baroque masters, he returned to Mexico in 1893.  In addition to painting, he also taught art.  One of his students was Diego Rivera.

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"Monte Sainte-Victoire"

by Paul Cezanne

ca, 1904-1906

Cezanne was one of the most important Post-Impressionist painters.  In his later years, from the vantage point of his studio, he painted numerous paintings of this mountain.  His style, which features planes of color, was to influence later avant-garde movements including the cubism of Pablo Picasso.

"The Cloud"

by Geraldo Murillo (aka Dr. Atl)

1931

Murillo, who painted under the name of Dr. Atl, mostly painted landscapes of the Mexican countryside, particularly its volcanoes.

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"River View"

by Alfred Sisley

1889

The French-British painter, Sisley, may be overshadowed by Monet, but he was one of the first generation of Impressionists.  His landscapes are reminiscent of Monet.

"Green Hill"

by Joaquín Clausell

ca. 1910

Clausell was a lawyer whose political activism against dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz led to several months in prison and several years in exile.  But he is best remembered as Mexico's foremost Impressionist landscape painter.

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"Young Woman with a Round Hat"

by Edouard Manet

ca. 1877-79

Manet was one of the first painters to portray modern life and was a transitional figure from realism to Impressionism.

"Lady on the Balcony"

by Félix Parra

ca. 1880

Parra's paintings depict the changes in Mexican society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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"Still Life"

by Camille Pissarro

1872

The Impressionist Pissarro is known for his landscapes and urban scenes.  This is one of the very few still lifes that he did.

"Still Life"

by Roberto Montenegro

1940

Montenegro is better known as an illustrator, although he also did canvases and murals.  During the Mexican Revolution he went to Paris where he met, among other artists, Pablo Picasso.  Although he did not embrace cubism, this still life is reminiscent of Picasso.

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"Mesalina"

by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

1900-1901

Toulouse-Lautrec is known for his paintings and posters portraying Parisian nightlife.  This picture portrays a drama presented in a Paris theater as seen from offstage.

"The Bedroom"

by José Clemente Orozco

1910

Orozco would go on to become one of the "Big Three" of Mexican muralism.  This early watercolor, portraying a scene in a brothel, shows the influence of Toulouse-Lautrec.

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"Jean Cocteau"

by Amadeo Modigliani

1916

The Italian born painter and sculptor moved to Paris where he joined the avant-garde art scene.  His portraits are identifiable from the elongated faces, necks and bodies.  Modigliani died at the age of 35 from tuberculosis.

"Portrait of Adolfo Best Maugard"

by Diego Rivera

1913

In 1912 the young Rivera moved to Paris where he knew a wide circle of artists including Picasso (he adopted cubism for a while), Mondrian, Chagall and Modigliani.  This very large canvas with an urban landscape in the background is a portrait of Best Maugard, a Mexican painter and film director, who was completing his studies in Paris at the time that Rivera was there.

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"Tasacon Stagecoach"

by Vincent Van Gogh

1888

Hanging by itself, and not paired with any Mexican painting, is this oil painting by Van Gogh.  It was painted the year that he moved to Arles in southern France, one of the most prolific periods of his career.  However, by the end of that year his mental instability worsened to the point that he cut off his ear and was placed in a hospital.  Less than two years after painting this picture, Van Gogh was dead from an infection from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Street Music

Occasionally I will post an entry with videos of musicians performing on the streets of Mexico City.  (I always give them a ten peso coin when I take a video.) Here are a few more that I filmed over the past weeks...

This saxophonist was performing on Avenida 16 de Septiembre, a street where you will usually find two or three musicians.

  

Recently I have seen musicians, such as this violinist, standing in front of the Hilton Hotel on Juárez Avenue.  That might be a better location since tourists are constantly coming in and out.

This singer, with his face painted for the Day of the Dead season, was also in front of the Hilton.  He brought along his own fan club (possibly his mother?).   Her sign reads, "Martin, you're the best."

More from the Street

I will wrap up my posts on the Day of the Dead with more pictures from Francisco Santiago Borraz Street in the Mexico City borough of Tlahuac...

Her clothes are made out of corn husks.

These skeletons, dressed in the regional costumes of Mexico were made by students from a nearby junior high school.

Skull made from an egg crate

I look forward to visiting this street again in the future.

"Day of the Dead" Street

Although the Day of the Dead season ended last weekend, I still have more pictures to show you.  Last Sunday, Alejandro and I went to Tlahuac, a district in the far southern part of Mexico City.  Each year, one of the streets in Tlahuac goes all out in decorating for the Day of the Dead season.  Alejandro and I visited the street last year and decided to return this year.

The tradition of decorating the street began with one of its families, the Jaen family, who are dedicated to the art of making figures of "cartonería", a type of rock-hard papier mache.  Since 2011 the family has been producing items of "cartonería" to decorate the street for the Day of the Dead.  They inspired the other residents to decorate also, and now the entire five blocks are a colorful and festive display of "ofrendas", "catrinas", skulls, marigolds and cut paper banners waving in the breeze.  Although the street has not been "discovered" by many foreign tourists, people from all over Mexico City come to see the decorations.  Some residents have set up stalls selling food, drink and handicrafts to the visitors.

This year, the centerpiece of the festival is a enormous mask of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc created by the Jaen family.  

They chose Tlaloc because in the past year, Mexico has suffered from extreme drought and disastrous floods.  The display is dedicated to the people of the state of Guerrero, a state which was ravaged by Hurricane Otis last year and Hurricane John this year.

More figures created by the Jaen family...

Visitors are greeted by this skeleton riding a bike.

More Day of the Dead decorations along Francisco Santiago Borraz Street...

More from Tlahuac in the next post...