More from the Muralism Museum

Alejandro and I continued down a passageway to a double courtyard that was part of the old Customs House in colonial times.  I had never seen this part of the building before, and I don't think that it was previously open to the public.

By the grand staircase there are a series of murals by David Alfaro Siqueiros, one of the "Big Three" of Mexican muralism.  The murals are entitled "Patricians and Patricides".  Siqueiros began the paintings in 1945, but did not finish them until 1971, because he spent many years in prison or in exile.  Siqueiros is not my favorite artist, but I must say that these murals were quite striking.

Climbing the first flight of steps, you see that the murals continue on the walls and across the entire ceiling of the stairwell.

This wall must be undergoing some restoration work.

On the wall of one of the courtyards is a three-dimensional metal mural by Manuel Felguérez entitled "Education in Steel".  Felguérez is a member of the so called "Rupture" generation that rejected the representational art of the old guard of muralists.  Frankly, I don't care for it.

Retracing our steps back to the courtyards of the former convent, we turned into a hallway that led to the old church.  In that hall there is a mural by Raúl Anguiano entitled "The Meeting of Two Cultures".  It was commissioned for the 500th anniversary of the voyage of Columbus.

It shows the birth of the modern Mexicans as the merger of the Spanish and indigenous peoples.

What used to be the Church of Santa María de la Encarnación was later used as a library.

  

At the far end is a mural by Roberto Montenegro done in 1924.  It is called the "Union of Latin America".

The artist included portraits of the Spanish explorers and conquerors to the left, and the heroes of Latin American independence to the right.  They are flanked by warriors representing the pre-Hispanic civilizations of the Americas.

At the opposite end of the hall is another mural, this one done in glazed ceramics by the Japanese-Mexican artist Luis Nishizawa.  It is entitled "The Image of Man".

By this time Alejandro and I had spent more than three hours at the museum.  We still had the upper two floors to see.  Admission was free, so we decided that we would return another day to see the rest.