Palacio de Bellas Artes and Barrio Lastarria

Sunday March 9 was a beautiful sunny day and a little cooler than yesterday.   High 28C.

We went to the vegetable market in the morning and had fresh avocados and tomatoes for lunch.  As we headed out,  I took this photo of the Rio Mapocho, the communication tower, and the mountains.

















We first went to two museum in nearby Parque Forestal.  The Palacio de Bellas Artes is a neoclassical building, built as part of Chile's centenary celebrations in 1910.  The building houses two of Santiago's art museums- the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo.  Unfortunately, the permanent collection at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA) was undergoing renovation and will reopen on March 20, the day after we leave Santiago.  However, there were a number of temporary exhibits at the MNBA that were well worth seeing.

The outside of the MNBA

Posters for ongoing Exhibits

The first exhibit we saw was "Artists for Democracy: the archive of Cecilia Vicuna".  The exhibit featured works from Cecilia Vicuna (b. 1948), John Dugger and others exhibited in 1974 in London, England following the 1973 coup in Chile.

Chile Vencera (Chile will Prevail) Cardigan by Cecilia Vicuna 1974

Back of Cardigan

Model for work by John Dugger

Under the large version

Photo of 1974 demo in London with Chile Vencera: Chile will Prevail

Also on the main floor of the museum was this lovely piece by Antonio Becerro entitled Encontraron cielo (They found the sky) featuring the stray dogs of Chile.

The stray dogs entering the museum from the sky

We then saw an exhibit entitled "La Ruta Trasnochada" (The Unslept Route), which featured the work of three painters who started their work in the 1980s during the dictatorship (a time of censorship).  The artists were Jorge Gonzales, Carlos Araya and Mauro Jofre.  The artists studied at the School of Fine Arts at the University of Chile.  The pictures are a retrospective of their work from 1986 to 2013.

I really enjoyed the colours and vibe of Jorge Gonzales's work:

Santiago 2003

Jorge Gonzales   

The next exhibit was entitled Tito Calderon: Archival Chile: From Death to Madness framed in the dictatorship when the personal experience of the artist was associated with death, censorship and fear.  His drawings are very elaborate.  Tito Calderon was born in 1958.  There were two interesting recent works done of scenes in Montreal and Toronto.

Amigos in Montreal 2011 

Mascaras en Toronto 2012

Andy and Mick 2001-2002

                                                    Earlier work -very disturbing (this pic from internet)

There were also some early Bauhaus films and interviews with Bauhaus artists in the lower level of the museum, but most were in German with Spanish subtitles.  There was one fascinating interview with Joseph Albers (1888-1976) in English, about his theory of colour.

We then went over to the other side of the Palacio which houses the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (MAC).

Entrance to MAC

View from balcony of two of the paintings

There was only one temporary exhibit on- a very interesting exhibit entitled Metamorphosis by Francesca Leone (b. 1974).  She is Italian and the daughter of film director, Sergio Leone.  All of her paintings took beautiful photos of landscape or waterfalls and transformed them into people.  A video showed the before photos and after paintings.  It was a very interesting concept and her execution was wonderful.  Here are a few of the "before" pics from the video compared with the paintings hung in the exhibit.

                                                                     Picture of Waterfall

                                                          Painting of Woman modelled after Waterfall 2011

Picture of landscape

Painting - Corpo e Terra 2 2012

After the Museo, we wandered through Parque Forestal to the Barrio Lastarria for some ice cream at Emporio La Rosa.  I had raspberry mint sorbet and Alano had Dulche de Leche.  The place was busy and the ice cream and sorbet were excellent.

       In the Parque under a Chilean Palm Tree

 Emporio La Rosa- one of the 25 best ice-cream places in the world!

Alano with his ice cream- they sometimes put the cone in the cup

We walked down to the end of Lastarria Street, passing some interesting graffiti along the way.  We also passed an older small movie theatre,El Biografo, which was showing Blue Jasmine and Philomena.  All the posters were in Spanish, of course.  

                                                          Graffiti on Lastarria Street

                                 

We then went to check out the Centro Gabriela Mistral, a very new cultural centre named after Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), a Chilean poet, the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945.  The Centre opened in 2010 and has spaces for dance, music and theatre as well as a cafe, wine store and open plazas.  We will definitely return.

 Outside Plaza at Cultural Centre

                                    Calendar of Events in March and poster for play about Allende

                                          Mural in one of the Plazas of the Cultural Centre

We then went to the Museo de Artes Visuales (MAV) and the Museo Arqueologico de Santiago(MAS), which are housed in a small building with some interesting sculptures outside.  The MAV was just hanging a show, so there was nothing to see, but the small permanent collection of the MAS had some wonderful pottery, jewellery and hats dating back many centuries.  Admission is free on Sundays.

 Outside of small gallery housing MAV and MAS

                                                  Valdivia Potter 1400-1800 associated with Mapuche

Fez 1440-1536 (Inca influence)

                                  San Pedro pottery-- the facial features became more abstract in later years

                                                                Silver "pillanes"- Mapuche cosmology

After our visit to the MAS, we had a coffee in the Museum cafe just beside the sculptures pictured  above.  Chile is not known for its coffee and many people still drink instant coffee.  However, that is slowly changing and there are more places with good coffee.

As we headed back to the apartment at around 6: 00 p.m., we passed some interesting apartments in Barrio Lastarria.  We then walked back through Parque Forestal and saw many people selling used clothing and enjoying some bongo players.  The area in front of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes was packed.

 Apartment block in Barrio Lastarria

                                                      Sunday in the Parque with Jorge

I was going to go for a swim, but the wind had come up and as the water was very cold, I took a pass.  We had a delicious fish dinner and then I started working on the blog, which I finished this morning.  We are both really enjoying Santiago-- lots of history, culture and spirit.