Last week we received a notice that on Wednesday the street would be closed and the electricity would be shut off from 10 AM until 4 PM while a work crew connected the power to two new apartment buildings just down the street. I planned on getting out of the apartment during that time. According to the weather forecast it was going to be too hot for one of my long walks, so instead I checked to see if there were any special exhibits at the museums downtown. At the Palace of Fine Arts there is an exhibit of Impressionist paintings, but I want to save that for a day when Alejandro can join me. I found three other museums that currently have special exhibits that sounded interesting. So, I planned to go museum-hopping during those hours without electricity.
Around ten o'clock I left the apartment. The street was cordoned off, and there were trucks from the power company outside. However, our doorman told me that the electricity would not be cut at our building. Nevertheless, I decided to continue with my plans. I walked to the Metrobus stop and headed downtown.
My first stop was Museo Kaluz. It was opened in 2020 and is one of Mexico City's newer museums. The 18th century building has served as a lodging for Augustinian friars, a tenement, and a hotel. It now houses the art collection of Mexican billionaire Antonio del Valle. I have been to the Museo Kaluz a couple of times previously. On my first visit I was irritated with their ridiculous policy that you could only take photographs with your cell phone. Well, that has changed, and I happily took a ton of photos with my camera.
There were three temporary exhibits going on at Kaluz, and they were all interesting. I ended up spending several hours at the museum, and when I left, I didn't bother to go to the other two museums on my itinerary. By the time I returned to the apartment, it was 3:30. The street was once again open, and the electric company workers were gone.
My next several blog posts will deal with these special exhibits. The largest, and most impressive was called "Bajo el Mismo México" (Under the Same Mexico).
The exhibit consisted of more than ninety 20th century Mexican paintings drawn from the collections of Antonio del Valle and another art collector, Juan Coronel Rivera. Afterwards, I did some research on the later, and found out that he is the gay grandson of Diego Rivera and his second wife Lupe Marín. (I can only imagine what the notorious womanizer Rivera would think of that!)
For the most part, the paintings are representational art, works that anyone can understand and appreciate. There are some pieces that are by well known artists such as Diego Rivera, but most are by lesser known painters. I felt rather proud of myself that, after visiting numerous art exhibits over the years, I recognized quite a few of the names.
The exhibit is divided into six galleries. Here are some of the paintings in the introductory gallery...
Luis Nishizawa
Alfredo Serrano Lara
Lauro López
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