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Published: June 22nd 2023
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If you have any interest in art, or if you need a break from eating delicious food and drinking mescal, or if you just need someplace beautiful to cool down on a hot day, then you should be visiting the wonderful art museums of Mexico City. I am particularly partial to art museums, and was delightfully surprised by the art on view in this exciting city. If what you see here doesn’t appeal there are many more art museums sure to tickle your fancy.
The Frida Kahlo Museum, also known as the Blue House, is a historic house museum and art museum dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It is the most popular museum in Coyoacán and one of the most visited museums in Mexico City. The museum contains a collection of artwork by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and other artists along with the couple's Mexican folk art, pre-Hispanic artifacts, photographs, memorabilia and personal items. In 1957, Diego Rivera donated the home and its contents in order to turn it into a museum in Frida's honor. The museum was relatively obscure for many years as Frida Kahlo was little known beyond the art world until
the 1980s, when a movement called Neomexicanismo promoted her and her work.
If you’re interested in visiting the Museo Frida Kahlo then you need to book timed tickets online well in advance; you are no longer able to buy tickets upon arrival. It’s small but seriously popular. If you enjoy the artwork of Frida Kahlo or Diego Rivera, or are fascinated by Frida’s life story, then the museum is definitely worth a visit. Otherwise, despite its popularity, it’s a bit out of the way for many tourists and not a necessary stop, unless you’re also going to visit the Leon Trotsky House Museum and perhaps the Coyoacan Market. In which case you should really be having dinner at Corazon de Maguey as well.
We ran out of time to visit but I would recommend the Leon Trotsky House Museum for anyone interested in history or politics. From January 1937 to April 1939, Trotsky and his second wife lived at Frida Kahlo’s family home, until Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky had a falling-out. The Leon Trotsky House Museum is the house where Trotsky lived from April 1939 to August 1940 and where Trotsky was murdered. The house has been
kept as it was in 1940, especially the study in which Ramon Mercader killed Trotsky with an ice axe to the back of the head.
The Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) is the Mexican national art museum and includes a collection of more than 3,000 pieces representing the history of Mexican art from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid 20th century. Works created after that time period are displayed at other venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in Chapultepec Park, which we did not visit. I didn’t quite know what to expect but I was much impressed by this art museum, my favorite in Mexico City.
The Museo de Arte Popular (Museum of Folk Art) promotes and preserves Mexican handcrafts and folk art. Opened in March 2006, the museum has a collection of textiles, pottery, glass, alebrijes (brightly colored folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures), masks, furniture and more. This museum was a lot of fun to visit the and the gift shop was top notch. Definitely worth a visit.
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