The Museo de Belles Artes Nacionale has a great collection of Argentine art, with some nice pieces from other parts of Latin America. The rest of their collection is patchy and mostly mediocre. The full size plaster of Rodin`s Kiss. in the first room kind of sets the tone. The plaster gave me a bit of a giggle, as did the bronze of Rodin`s Hand of God taking centre stage at the entrance to the collection. It`s a soccer joke, folks.
The gallery allows photos without flash, but on the whole, the lighting in the Latin American section was too low for me to take any clear pictures of the works. Strangely, the lighting in the European is considerably brighter. The above photo is of a work that actually did catch my attention in the European section… Alas, I failed to record the details. From memory, it`s a 16th/17th century Spanish thingy.
28 September 2007 at 7:11 pm
umm. not sure I’d put it my must-see list of galleries/art museums to visit. take a look at my favourite centres in my most recent blog. do these resonate with you?
fpb
28 September 2007 at 11:20 pm
No, I wouldn`t put it on a must see list of art galleries in the entire world. I come from Australia. MBAN is now where near the league of Australian galleries, let alone the galleries on your list, nor are any of the other Buenos Aires galleries for that matter. The best work I`ve seen since I`ve been here both in terms of quality of work and curation is a an import from MoMA NY at the Malba museum – an entire floor devoted to video artist Douglas Gordon.
Unfortunately, the Museo de Arte Moderno has been closed for renovations during my visit to Buenos Aires.
I did however enjoy visiting the gallery. It expanded my experience and understanding of Buenos Aires.
I`m currently an art curatorship student. I could ramble for a very long time about the subtlties of my experience of MBAN – but ya know, this is just a travelblog for a tango tourist!
29 September 2007 at 12:43 am
hi c
yep got that impression. just for the record could you tell me anything about the other galleries in BA. i’ve never been to Oz either. top 5 galleries in your home country? where are you studying?
fpb
29 September 2007 at 1:27 pm
Sorry, I actually dont feel like writing/thinking much about this at present – I`m in tourist mode!
I don`t have a top five galleries in Australia. I`d suggest though that if someone was planning to visit Australia, and they had a specific interest in contemporary art, they may want to time their visit to coincide either with the Sydney Biennale http://www.biennaleofsydney.com.au , or with the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/apt