DF 2020 - Art in the Bank Part 2

I can't seem to find out any information about this building so I'll just present photos of the inside of it and the art contained therein.

 Rufino Tamayo

 

 Alberto Montenegro

Jesús Guerrero Galván - another of the Mexican muralists

Juan O'Gorman - Artist and architect - designed Diego and Frida's home in south DF as well as many iconic buildings in the city including the central library at the University 

I can't find my photo of this building so credit to Protoplasma Kid

Leonara Carrington

 

Rufino Tamayo

Jose Clemente Orozco

Cassic Diego Rivera

DF 2020 - Art in The Bank

Since I've been asked several times, what is DF?  Just to clarify once again, DF stands for Distrito Federal, the federal district also known as Mexico City where the federal government of Mexico resides.  

Having cleared that up, I'll take you on another art/architecture adventure, this time to the head offices of CitiBanamex.  Art and architecture in a bank?  Yes, this is a very old bank originally created by merging the Banco Nacional Mexicano and Banco Mercantil Mexicano in 1884 located in another one of those beautiful old colonial buildings downtown.  

In it they display a large collection of art from colonial times to the present as well as temporary exhibits.  The building itself is a work of art as most of them are in that part of town.  

 
The temporary exhibit was of Nacimientos, literally "nativity scenes" which are very popular in Mexico and seem to often include more than just the usual.  

 This one was created entirely from corn husks

On to the art and architecture in the next post.

And now for something completely different

Christmas at Butchart Gardens.  

 

 Three French hens

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=yF-tz5uh1ok&feature=emb_logo

The peacocks that reside in the park across the street from where I live like to shelter under the overhang on our building in inclement weather.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clqnGCFeb6s&feature=emb_logo

 Garry Oaks in the park

Now, back to Mexico

DF 2020 - Zapata

At the Palacio de Bellas Artes there is a big exhibit of one of the most well known Mexican revolutionaries, Emeliano Zapata.  Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, the main leader of the peasant revolution in the state of Morelos, and the inspiration of the agrarian movement called Zapatismo.  Zapatismo was reborn in the state of Chiapas in 1994 and is alive and thriving, seeking many of the same goals of agrarian reform and autonomy.  But that's another story.  This is a very popular exhibit with works of art by many famous and not so famous Mexican artists portraying Zapata in many different, and sometimes controversial ways.  

 Zapata by David Alfaro Siqueiros

Diego Rivera

The triumphant revolutionaries

This painting was highly controversial and sparked protests and cries for it's removal from Zapata's heirs and other offended parties.  A great piece of publicity naturally and drew a lot of people to the exhibit.

There were some other pieces that must have rankled devout Zapatistas as well.

The revolutionary meets his end

Viva Zapata!

DF 2020 - Museum of Modern Art

A short ride from my place, the Museum of Modern Art in Chapultepec Park is a regular stop on my visits to DF.  This year featured an exhibit of CoBrA which was an artist group formed in 1948 by artists from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam whose painting style was highly expressionist and inspired by the art of children.  It did not spark an interest in me hence the lack of photos.  Another exhibit was Phychoanalysis and Identity in Mexican Art interpreted by Teresa del Conde, an art critic and art historian.  Works by many major Mexican artists were grouped by mental states of mind e.g. libido, depression, etc.  Her interpretation aside, I enjoyed seeing the works of many of my favourites. 

David Alfaro Siqueiros a so called social realist painter.  He was a muralist and contemporary of Diego Rivera and, like Rivera, a member of the Mexican Communist Party

 

 

 

 Gerardo Murillo known as Dr. Atl, another of the leftist artist crowd.

Diego Rivera's cubist period

The most famous of Oaxacan artists, Rufino Tamayo.  He did not share his contemporaries political views and felt that revolution would be detrimental.

Francisco Goitia, from Zacatecas, was a revolutionary and followed Poncho Villa's army chronicling the revolutionary violence.

Leonora Carrington was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movement of the 1930s. Carrington was also a founding member of the Women's Liberation Movement in Mexico during the 1970s.

 

 A couple of other Mexican artists unknown to me.

The Mexican Communist Party was founded by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left wing Indian Bengali (strangely enough) and enjoyed some success in the early 20th century.  Many of the most famous artists of the time were members.  

 These are part of the rotating photography exhibition mounted on the outside fence of Chapultepec Park on Reforma.  Another wonderful attraction of the city.

There was another exhibition of Cuban design, the most interesting part of which, at least for me, was a documentary of the National Schools of Art in Havana, a project founded in 1961 by Castro and Guevara but only recently completed.  It's a marvelous architectural construction housing schools of dance, theatre, plastic arts, drama and music.  I wish I'd known about it when I was there.  Check it out:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Art_Schools_(Cuba)