Friday’s adventure was an interesting cultural experience as we explored two of the most prolific art collections I have ever seen. Our first stop was the National Museum of Fine Arts, a collection of 215 permanent works of art housed in one of the most heavily guarded places we’ve been so far. With an art history general education class under my belt, I was able to appreciate some of the Renaissance and Impressionist works displayed in the gallery and other works that were inspired by Carravagio, Van Gogh, and Pueyrredon. My favorite Pueyrredon work was a larger than life sized portrait of Manuelita Rosas, a revered Argentinian political figure and daughter of Juan Manuel de Rosas. I learned that Pueyrredon was a key figure in the design and fabrication of the May Pyramid in Plaza de Mayo, a monument that has been at the center of our adventures in Buenos Aires. In the contemporary collection, I enjoyed that the pieces focused on great detail but when you took a step back the artwork revealed a completely different pictures. My favorite piece from the contemporary collection, for obvious reasons, was a piece entitled “Escuchando a Bruce Springsteen.”
Our second stop was a collection of artwork in the National Museum of Decorative Arts which was housed in a French style mansion that was designed to be the retirement quarters for a wealthy Latin American military family. I thought it was interesting to see the size and intricacy of 19th and early 20th century mansion; the building looked like something from a Disney fairytale yet it was completed in 1916. This place, just as the MNBA, was heavily guarded which I found to be interesting given the minimum security nature of some of the museums and historical sites in the United States. There was somewhat of an artwork overload in this collection which made it difficult for me to able to take everything in.
Overall it was a very interesting day that ended with dinner at the local shopping center Kentucky Fried Chicken. The steak and Italian food has been wonderful, but sometimes you just need that unique taste of home!
