Costa Rican National Museum of Art

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Our lawyer is located in San Jose only a few blocks away from the Costa Rican National Museum of Art. Since Mike and I don’t have a truck yet and aren’t on any real schedule, we figured we’d make the most of our time in San Jose and check out some of the museums in the area. We still plan on visiting the Serpenterium (figured it was good to know which guys to look out for) and the Gold Museum, but for this trip, we decided to check out the art museum.

For $5, you can see 2 floors of Costa Rican artwork. It’s not a huge museum. Actually, we learned that the museum was in fact, the country’s previous international airport. The tower you see in the picture was the control tower and the grounds behind the museum as well as some of La Sabana Park, served as runways.

The artwork is very expressive, and the museum is structured with a definitive theme of national identity. The exhibit is called Inside/Outside That Apparent Nothing. It refers to the duality between the two worlds that have coexisted in Costa Rica ~ that of the indigenous, which has long been downplayed and the Spanish. The exhibit shows two realities that exist which either come together or pull each other apart.

Costa Rican scholar Alexander Jimenez Matarrita sums it up bests when he states, “Colonialism still assumes that before the provincial arrival of the Spaniards, nothing existed here”. For this reason, this exhibit chose to include many Pre-Columbian works as well which Mike and I both found to be incredibly enriching.

The second floor of the museum also contained an amazing room completely carved out of bronze which depicts the history of Costa Rica. One of the curators explained the history to us as expressed through the carvings. He stated that the room is not a political statement, but merely an expression of the history of Costa Rica. The room took the artist 6 years to carve and is now used for lectures on Costa Rican history.

Being technically homeless and unemployed, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my $5 was well spent as I learned more about Costa Rica in the 2 hours spent here in the museum than I have on any previous trips to the country. I would recommend visiting the museum if you go to San Jose and have a desire to learn more about the country and its people.

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Photos

A Farewell to Arms
This painting dates to 1948, the year Costa Rica abolished its army.

Does Costa Rica Exist?
The curator explained that this piece is a criticism of Costa Rica today. The country has no army so it has a peaceful reputation, hence the use of camouflage as the medium. However, the country has a very high rate of husbands killing their wives and fatalities due to drunk driving. He also noted that while Costa Rica has a reputation for being an eco-logically progressive country, it also contains one of the world’s most polluted rivers due to industrial waste being poured directly into this waterway. The predominance of the brown (desert) camouflage over the green (jungle), depicts that Costa Rica has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world.

Elderly Lady Sitting in a Chair
Done completely in Bronze.

Hollow People
The picture did not capture it well, but there is a heart on the shelf in the background.

Motherly Love
Done completely in Carved Wood.

Do You See the Face?
Look closely.....

History of CR - Part 1
Indigenous people cultivating sugar cane.

History of CR - Part 2
Monkeys abound.

History of CR - Part 3
Indigenous hunters kill monkeys and jaguars for food.

History of CR - Part 4
Columbus arrives and receives cacao beans from the natives.

History of CR - Part 5
The Spanish bring Catholicism.

Comments

[Katy8722]

Barbie?
Is that Barbie I recognize as the "Our Lady of Modernism"? I really enjoyed "our" visit to the museum. I still haven't found the face on that one. haha