Today was Museum Day. We headed downtown to the Plaza Botero to see his sculptures and visit the modern art gallery, the Museo de Antioquia.
After viewing the sculptures (there are a lot!), we took a short stroll though the Palacio de la Cultura Rafael Uribe, a striking black-and-white Gothic Revival landmark. The dome was modeled on New York City skyscrapers and built using metal supports imported from Belgium. It was declared a National Monument in 1982 and served as the seat of the Governor of Antioquia until 1987. We were not overly impressed with the architecture. But, today it functions as a cultural center and is headquarters of the Institute of Culture and Heritage of Antioquia with a library, dance and music and fine art studios, art galleries, and offices, an impressive space.
The Museo de Antioquia is just across the plaza. Botero was born in the city, he donated most of the pieces there, and the museum holds the largest public collection of his work anywhere, over 100 paintings, drawings, and sculptures spread across several rooms on the upper floors.
Other than his sculptures, I’ve never been a big fan, so the International Room on the top floor was most interesting to me. Apparently, Botero learned to paint without ever seeing a single original painting from outside Latin America, working only from reproductions in books and magazines. He donated his personal collection of European and North American work so Colombian artists would not have to start the way he did. There are pieces by Picasso and Chagall, Rodin, Max Ernst, and more. It seems his interest was in bringing real Europe and North American works to Medellín for the first time (this was around 2002). Yet the problem of Eurocentrism affecting local artists still loomed large. So the room centers not on a European artists but on Liberación (La Boca Roja), a 1947 painting by the Cuban artist Wifredo Lam. Lam mixed European modernism with Afro-Cuban imagery, decades before people talked about globalization or decolonization.
The neighborhood around the plaza and museum revealed the gritty, poverty-stricken and drug-laden side of the city of Medellín. Street drug use and rampant alcoholism was everywhere around the plaza, in spite of vigilant police presence and many tourists. Downtown Medellín is a different reality from the neighborhoods we have been in so far in Medellín. I’m reminded of New York City circa 1990, specifically parts of Manhattan when I moved there. Just as was the case then in Manhattan, Medellín has neighborhoods completely removed from this reality, but when downtown, it’s on full display. As we waited for an Uber across from the Museum for 10 minutes, we were reminded in full relief of the poverty and hardship so prevelant in South American and in much if the world today.
After a nap, we went for a much needed sushi dinner at an excellent spot near the hotel. Early to bed to be ready for the cloud forest tomorrow!
Photos of Day 3 here:
alsur.blog 
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