Saturday, February 19, 2011 — The marathon begins ...

What a performance city!

Besides having museums seemingly in every block, this town has been absolutely bustling since we arrived. As I said yesterday, the indigenous market was an event to behold yesterday. I know I already posted a pic of the dancers that came to El Tuito to bless Dr. Aotle new museum next to Casa Tejedora. But I feel I must add one to it because of all the incredible memories associated with that visit to the market. So you're getting one more and I have movies of the same people for those I'll be seeing when I get back.

Today, right after breakfast we began an all day museum marathon. That's not always the way I like to do it, but we have only until 9:00 a.m. before we leave so it was all for the good and infinitely exciting. We started with a walking tour near our hotel checking out the Jose Cuervo Museum. Cuervo is a painter, sculptor, print maker that JP and Yael have been watching for some years. He bought a magnificent, palacial town edifice and remodeled it with exquisite taste. He exhibits his own work there and schedules the work of others on a regular basis. The building is classic colonial with three floors and gracious colonades. A mixed group of singers was rehearsing for a musical program that was scheduled in the beautiful ground floor court at 1:00. Unfortunately we couldn't stay on for that. We spent about an hour checking out the exhibit of a Cuban painter now being featured. I liked his work a lot. We followed the owner/painter/propriator's work through some forty years and I found it quite interesting but a bit more gorey than I was in the mood for.

We moved on to a museum which houses some amazing Orozco murals. There is a current show of his paintings and early black and white work. I've actually never seen much black and white Orozco so that was truly revealing for me. What a master of line and dark and light as well as being a fine designer with a vibrant sence of patterning. The building there is also a thing to behold.

Our next stop was at Frida Kalo's Casa Azul. What a tranquil and yet bribrantly alive place that is. Seeing her studio, inner living quarters, including a kitchen I'd love to have for my own,, was entirely satisfying. Her work is so evocative and heart breaking all at once. I actually can only take so much of it at one time. It was marvelous to see her vast collection of photographs taken by her and by others in her family, including her photographer father.

After a length but interesting trip across town, we arrived at the Dolores Almeda museum. Her collections of Mexican folk art as well as probably the best of both Frida Kalo and Diego Riviera, were probably the peak experience of the day. She had Kalos that are totally mature both in concept and delivery. And some of the classics that we only see in art books. This museum is actually the home of Almeda and is worth seeing in its own right. We at lunch in a charming glassed in enclosure that has views of intimate gardens and a hint of what is just beyond, which looked suspiciously like a pool area with tennis courts. It was her hacienda and it now houses educational facilities taking place in grand outbuildings as well as her gracious mansion where so much of her artwork is housed. This is a place to which I would definitely like to return.

Last on our list was the "Home" designed by Diego Riviera to house his work. It is a fantasmagorical edifice built from volcanic rock quaried right on his own land. It's hard to describe because it doesn't resemble a home in any way and Riviera died before it was completely finished.