Day 6: Xochimilco

I suggested to Truckee that he do what he wanted today, and I do what I wanted. What I wanted was to see both the Museum of Modern Art and the Siqueiros Museum. I had the impression that the town of Xochimilco was several hours away. Actually it is the District stop on the southern border of Mexico City and takes about an hour to get to.  The pull of Xochimilco for me was the fact that its geography matched somewhat the geography of the Aztec city.   My curiosity has been aroused about the exact look of the area. Today I looked for a map and could not find one.

The signs that lead to the Embarcadero are helpful as well as many citizens who point the way to the water.  A young man greets you in Spanish and shows the boat options. We thought that the four hour archeological tour would be the best. That costs $1000 pesos- about $100 American.  I only had 700 pesos in my pocket and Truckee, less than 300.  We took the $500 peso tour.  It was fun, interesting  but in the end, I still wish we could have taken the longer tour. 

We visited Museo Dolores Olmedo in Xochimilco also in the city of canals.

http://www.museodoloresolmedo.org.mx/english/coleccperm.html

There were at least two facets of this museum that were outstanding.  Dolores Olmeda was once a model of Diego Rivera.  There were wonderful pieces from throughout the career of Rivera and Frieda Kahlo.  The very early pieces from 1916 were extremely interesting- cubist pieces that imitated Braque and Picasso.  Anyone would have seen the promise. Nevertheless it was the two pieces that he did while in Toledo. One had overtones of El Greco with three slightly elongated large figures.  A group of ladies danced in the background. It made me recall Picasso’s famous piece of Dancers.  The other piece, At the Fountain of Toledo, both painted in 1913. They were large pieces about 8’ by 9’.  There were several Rivera self-portraits done over about a 30 year period- very interesting. Each had its own character.  The one done in 1921, I thought, was the most interesting.

Other noteworthy pieces were:

1940       Portrait of Rosa Rolanda

1956       Works done in Russia: Russian Boy with Sled and Landscape of Crakova

1955       Portrait of Irene Phillips Omeda 

              

Several large cartoons in preparation for muralsere

The museum had interspersed Mexican clay figurines. I suppose that having visited the Archeological Museum recently had overwhelmed me. There is little written on the pre Columbian pieces.  I enjoyed them, but they seemed to be just more artifacts.

There was a room of family photographs of Rivera and Kahlo.  There was an exhibition of a more modern artist, Kelly, with highly free interpretations of neighborhoods in Mexico City.  Also a Day of the Dead exhibit had 40 or 50 life size skeletal characters. All were colorful  and done with good humor. 

The second aspect of this museum was the grounds- just beautiful. Long stretches of grass, flowers and hedges, all flawlessly groomed. The building itself, although built in the 20 century was enormous, but tasteful, done in a traditional Spanish hacienda style. There were two fenced in areas of native Mexican dogs- an endangered species.  There were peacocks everywhere and various other aquatic birds.