Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Mexico City 6 : Palacio de Bellas Artes

At the far end of Alameda Park is the Palacio de Bellas Artes, my favorite building in this most architecture-rich of cities. With its stunning combination of white-marble, Arte Deco and Art Nouveau elements, the Palacio indeed would rank high on any list of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Happily for us it was only a couple of blocks from our hotel.

Alas it was summer season and not a lot going on in the way of performances so we didn’t actually get a chance to go into the theatre. Next time. But there were still plenty of riches to savor, not the least being the murals which adorn the second and third floors, the most memorable of all being Diego Rivera’s El Hombre en El Cruce de Caminos (Man at the Crossroads).

The Palacio is both an opera house and museum, and there are lots of rooms and sections with exhibits and displays. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon an exhibit in the first floor east wing which covered the Palacio’s early years. The various program booklets, press clippings, posters, promotional materials, magazine articles, and glamour photos were a veritable nirvana for performing arts memorabilia buffs.

Program booklet article on a rising star named Maria Callas.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Mexico City 5 : Coyoacán

Museo Frida Kahlo (La Casa Azul)

Museo Leon Trotsky *

Mercado, Plaza Hidalgo, Jardin Centenario

The quesadilla stand at the mercado

Bread at Casa del Pan!

* For historical background, see John Mitchell’s article in Mexico Connect, The Leon Trotsky Museum - Murder and Marxism in Mexico City, which is a concise overview of Trotsky’s time in Mexico and in particular his last days at Viena 45.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Mexico City 4 : Museums pt. 2

The prior museums posting got to be a little long so I decided to divide up museums. This section will include pictures of : La Opera Bar restaurant, Sanborns (La Casa de Los Azulejos), and the Hotel Majestic. As mentioned before, none of these is technically a museum but all are worthy of inclusion because of their beauy and historical significance.

La Opera Bar

Sanborns (La Casa de los Azulejos)

Hotel Majestic *

* We didn't stay at the Majestic but enjoyed lunch at the Terraza rooftop restaurant, which has commanding views of the Zocalo. We also thoroughly enjoyed our stroll around the Majestic's interiors.With its mid-1930s construction date, the Majestic exudes a vintage charm which includes its warmly ornate architectural designs and Talavera tiles.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Mexico City 3 : Museums

Mexico City has an incredible variety of museums and other historic buildings; the ones we didn’t get to would be respectable choices for any number of visits.

To our credit we did manage to visit the most famous sites : the Museo Nacional de Antropología, the Palacio Nacionale (a kind of museum), the Carlos Slim Museo Soumaya, the Castillo at the Bosque de Chapultapec. These won’t be get a posting in these pages as they are quite well known and well covered in the literature, both online and print. Two big favorites, well known or not, which will receive separate postings in the future will be the Blue House and the nearby Trotsky House. Likewise for the incredibly beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes, another kind of museum.

But still there are a few under the radar items which merit a mention, pictures of which are included below : the Museo Nacionale de Arte, which despite its rather grand title seems to be one of the lesser known of the city’s major historic buildings. Our highlight there was a Saturday afternoon concert by Mexican pianist Aquilles Morales in the second floor room (I don’t recall its exact name) which is larded with its irresistibly excessive Baroque/Art Nouveau frescos. Anyway, it all made for pleasantly reverberant acoustics for the likes of Debussy, Chopin, Albéniz et al.

There was also : the Folk Art museum (Museo de Arte Popular), an underrated gem with : incredible carvings of miniature figures, a jaguar sculpture, a psychedelic VW bug, and all sorts of other amazing stuff; the disappointing Carlos Monsivais museum (Museo Estanquillo), disappointing because only one floor of four was open to the public; the funky Museo Policia which had a creepy mujeres asesinas exhibit; the Guggenheim-esque Museo de Arte Moderno, which has a fabulous collection of modern art but is probably best known as the home of The Two Fridas.

I also include here a few pictures of La Opera Bar restaurant,* Sanborns (aka La Casa de Los Azulejos), and the Hotel Majestic, all historic buildings though technically not museums.

Museo Nacionale de Arte