Mexico 2019 - Museo Rufino Tamayo

For those lovers of art and antiquities, the Museo Rufino Tomayo is a real treasure that combines both.  Rufino Tamayo is one of the most prominent artists in Mexico and is from Oaxaca.  This museum was created to exhibit his collection.

"He collected these objects on his travels through Mexico, and he wanted to be sure that this heritage remained in the country and that it be on display for the general public to see and appreciate it.

Tamayo selected the pieces based on their artistic, rather than archaeological, value. The exhibits are not grouped in chronological or geographical sequence but rather according to overarching themes.  The collection contains around one thousand pieces, all of them interesting, but a few of them are exquisite."

I winnowed them down to the ones I like the best but there are still too many for one post: 

Stay tuned for the rest

Mexico 2019 - Santo Domingo

The Church and former monastery of Santo Domingo de Guzmán is a Baroque ecclesiastical building complex in Oaxaca.   

This is part of the restored monastery section, an eyeful in itself. 

In the former monastery is now a museum that houses some important pre-columbian artifacts. 

The church has also been fully restored. Its highly decorated interior includes use of more than 60,000 sheets of 23.5 - karat gold leaf.  The church was founded by the Dominican order and construction began in 1575 taking 200yrs to complete.  

To say "highly decorated" is a bit of an understatement.

 

I kept hearing talking and laughter coming from above.  Angles?  No, the people doing restoration, on their lunch break.

There is also a botanical garden behind the monastery that you can see from the museum.  It looked very intriguing, full of all sorts of cacti and and trees but it seemed strange that there were no people in it.  When I went to check it out, I learned that it wasn't open during the day and to go in to the garden, it would be in late afternoon and you had to sign up in advance for a specific time to get on a tour that would be conducted in French.  Odd.  

 I don't know what this bird is but it was large

Mexico 2019 - Oaxaca - ceramics, museum & the neighbourhood

Oaxaca is known for the high quality crafts produced in the villages scattered around the area, one of which is the black pottery, emblematic of Oaxaca and ubiquitous in Mexico and known and admired internationally as well.  The small community of San Bartolo Coyotepec just on the outskirts of Oaxaca specializes in this ceramics craft and 600 families in the community contribute to this industry. "The origins of barro negro pottery, as it's called, extend over centuries, with examples of it found at archeological sites, fashioned mostly into jars and other utilitarian items. It has remained a traditional crafts of the Zapotecs and Mixtecs of the Central Valleys area to the present day." At the Mercado de Artesanias, the artisans market, vendors display and sell the ceramics and other crafts of the community.  At peak times, this market is a busy place but we must have been there at an off time as it was pretty quiet and only a few vendors were open.  The only ceramics store that seemed to be open was the Pottery of Doña Rosa Real, the woman who developed the technique of creating a glossy finish on the pottery that, before her innovation, had a matte black finish.  

Here are some random samplings of sights around the neighbourhood where we were staying. 

This is very much in the tourist zone, with it's lovely colonial architecture and colourful homes, which is bounded by a major highway on the other side of which is regular urban Mexico and hardly any foreigners.
 

  This looks like an aqueduct but in each of these arches is a home or business, or both and on the top side are homes as well.

These frangipani, or plumeria if you prefer, are lovely things.