We went to the San Antonio Museum of Art yesterday to see Tesoros Modernos (Modern Treasures), a collection of Latin American masterpieces from the Monterrey collection. It was impressive and included a lot of artists I wasn’t familiar with and a few I was. I think my favorite was Alejandro Colunga’s “La Muerta de un Loco.” Very dark, even disturbing. They also had a piece by Diego Rivera, something from his Cubist period, and a work by Orozco, whom I’ve always liked.
We took our friend Anita’s six-year-old with us, and as we drifted through the gallery, Emma’s pink, glitter-splattered shoes clicked across the marble floors in staccato bursts.
“That’s pretty,” the tap-dancing art critic decreed.
More clicking. “That looks like nothing,” she said, standing in front of Cesar Paternosto’s “Inti,” which is basically an orange canvas with orange rectangles on it.
Then more clicking, and a slip.
“These floors feel like butter.”
Emma’s antics definitely made the exhibit more fun.
Overall, I really was impressed by the museum. It’s one of the best I’ve been to, probably because it caters to Latin American art. After we looked at Tesoros Modernos, we went through the Nelson Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art. It’s an awesome collection that includes pre-Columbian, revolution era and modern works. Several nice pieces by Rivera and Orozco, including Orozco’s “Martirio de San Esteban I.” It features Saul watching as St. Stephen is stoned to death, suggesting a link to what the church was doing during World War II while Jews were dying in concentration camps. Very moving.
The folk art section also was great. They had molas from the Kuna Indians and lots of Day of the Dead stuff.
I came across one piece that I really liked, though I’m not sure how to categorize it other than to call it contemporary. It had a Pop Art feel to it. It was Enrique Changoya’s “Les Adventuras Des Cannibales Des Moderinistas.” I made a mental note to look up Changoya and see some of his other work.