Bellas Artes

Today we went to the Museum of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes) in Recoleta. It's the museum to visit if you wish to see the finest art from Buenos Aires (the 2nd floor, once again, is THE floor).

The 1st floor features several rooms covering modern, impressionist, post-Impressionist, French, Italian, Spanish & other European Classical art. The first room we visited featured the artwork of Jackson Pollock, Fernand Leger ("Marie"), Picasso (not his best work), Chagall ("Los Amantes"), Miro, Kandinsky, Modigliani, Rousseau, and Vuillard. The artist that caught my attention, who I had never heard of, is Franz Von Stuck from Alemania. His "Batsheva" is a beautiful work.

Another room features 19th century French works, including "Diana Surprise" by Jules Joseph Lefebure. There also were 2 statues by Rodin: "El Beso" and "La Tierra y la Luna" (The Earth and the Moon). Also, there were nice pieces by Courbet and especially by Corot.

The next room featured 18th century Italian and French pieces, including fine works by Escuela Ricci and Nattier. Then in another room, there are 16th century pieces, including a great piece by Belgium´s Jan Speckaert who depicted the Biblical scene of Moses transforming the rod into a serpent. Also, there's a large tapestry by Talleres de Leyniers y Gerard (Belgium) called "Celebracion del en lace de Maria Teresa con Luis VIX". Some nice pieces by Rubens as well.

The impressionists and post-Impressionists are on the right side of the 1st floor. This includes pieces by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissaro, Gaughin, Lautrec, and one of my favorites, "Retratode Diego Martelli" by Degas. There was one modernist piece I liked called "Immigrantes" by Lorenzo Gigi (1940).

The Medieval art wasn't all that impressive. There were a couple of nice pieces by Tintoretto (16th century Venice).

The Hirsh Collection room is very good, featuring works by Rembrandt , Aert de Gelder (we loved his "Esther and Mordechai Write letters to the Jews", from the story of Purim), and also El Greco ("Jesus ...")


And now, for the 2nd floor featuring some of finest of Buenos Aires and other South American artists.

First, there are 19th Century pieces by Carlos Pelligrini (Buenos Aires) and Jean Leon Palliere (Rio de Janeiro). Then, there are super 19th Century Realism works by Carlos Morel, Prilidiano Pueyrredon ("Un Aldo en el Campo"), Candido Lopez ("Vista interior de Curuzu"), and Pio Collivadino. Diana likes "Desnudo mujer oriental" by Severo Rodriquez Etchart. Great vivid works by these Buenos Aires artists, all of them.

Then, in another room, it really kicks into high gear (19th and 20th Century). First, a great work by Cesareo Bernaldo de Quires: Don Juan Sandoval" (1965); there are other nice pieces by him in the same area. Second, there are the works by B.A.´s Alfredo Gramajo Gutierrez, including "Retablo de Jesus" (1930). After that, there´s "Quietud" by Francisco Vidal from Cordoba, Argentina. This is followed by a collection of pieces depicting various scenes in the La Boca district. One of my favorite pieces in the museum is called "Elevadores a pleno sol" by Benito Quinquela Martin. This wonderful work depicts the stevadores moving cargo to and from the ships, with the colorful La Boca buildings in the background. But that's not all. There are fine pieces from Victor Cunsolo and Octavio Pinto (who's from Cordobo and lived in Montevideo).

Finally, we saw the Bemberg Collection in another room. This features the works of cubists Rafael Barradas (from Montevideo) and Xul Solar (from B.A., whose work we saw yesterday). Also, there are pieces by 2 other Uruguayian artists: Pedro Figari and Joaquin Torres Garcia.

This is certainly a larger museum with finer South American pieces.

On the ride home, we saw all the business folks throw all their papers out from their windows, signifying the end of the year ritual being celebrated all over the world.

At 7:30, we're going to see a Tango Show in San Telmo. I'll blog later about it.

Bye for now.