"Mi Buenos Aires querido"

(Image: C. del Rosso)

It’s really hot in Buenos Aires, it’s summer already. The jacarandas and the tipas had already flowered and their violets and yellows mixed with the green of the trees’ leaves in the background. Buenos Aires is a city with a lot of culture, that’s already known. And a lot of art, of course.

Tintoretto, Nativity,
1585

You already know me enough: I can’t stay anywhere without visiting museums. I wanted to go back to the National Museum of Fine Arts, a good old friend. It was like returning to my origins: there it started all. Many, many years ago, I used to stroll around the halls and questioned innerly El Greco, Zurbarán, Sisley, Monet, Corot, Renoir, Goya… How come? Why so? I was fascinated by colors and shapes: and I was caught up forever. But this time it was different: I didn’t pose the same questions, because I already knew how it’s done, I already knew why it’s made, but the fascination was the same. Maybe like reencountering with old friends you had not seen in ages.

Guerrico Collection
 (Image: C.del Rosso)

If you are in Buenos Aires or you are going to travel there and are interested in art, you shouldn’t avoid visiting it. Its collection is one of the best of South America: it was founded in 1895 with funds coming from donatives by different artists and great collectors (Santamarina, Guerrico, etc.): then it was expanded with the help of State acquisitions, to which the Instituto Di Tella collection was added, a center of research and experimentation of avant-garde art.

Modigliani, Woman bust,
1917

There are not enough medieval and Renaissance works, but Baroque is represented enough (Ribera, Zurbarán, Rubens, Tintoretto, Luca Giordano…), there’s something of XVIII century (Nattier, Tiepolo, Guardi), but the major feature in the collection is the amount of works from XIX century on. I’ve already mentioned some artists. We can also enjoy some good representants of contemporary art: Modigliani, Tàpies, Pollock, Rothko, Kline… 

Of course, if you want to know more of Argentine art, it’s the best place to have a whole vision. From Cándido López’ historical painting, Prilidiano Pueyrredón, de la Cárcova’s constumbrist and naturalist art, Pettoruti’s cubism, the ethernal Quinquela Martín y Macció, Testa, Fader to so many other…

de la Cárcova, Without bread and without work, 1894

Quinquela Martín, Elevators at full sun, 1945

If I used to go once and once again to see a bit of Monet, Cuyp, Goya or Corot, today I would stay there fours staring at Quinquela’s works: I don’t know why, maybe because this is the port from which the city was built for centuries, maybe because I identify myself with this port, the port that took my and so many other’s grandparents in…

Pettoruti, The improviser, 1937

The other day I went to the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires). I had never been there: I was recommended to go so much that I could not resist it. I loved it. It’s like a breeze of fresh air in the city’s cultural scene. It was founded in 2001 to exhibit the artworks of the Fundación Constantini, XX century Latin-American art. You can find there samples of Rivera, Guayasamín, Kahlo, Lam, Botero, Matta, and of course, many Argentine artists: Macció, Xul Solar, Spilimbergo, Pettoruti, Berni… The spaces are clear and illuminated, they don’t overwhelm you. I could see a temporal exhibition of a Mexican artist I had not heard of: Francis Alÿs, with an interesting proposal about migrations, in a small format. (We got used to having contemporary art in enormous formats!)

And of course, by the entrance, the tip of the Obelisk, that an artist tried to steal some months ago... (If you want to know the story, click here and here)

(Image: C. del Rosso)

web National Museum of Fine Arts of Argentina

web MALBA

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