The Museo Nacional de Arte is the Mexican national art museum, located in the historical center of Mexico City. The museum is housed in a neoclassical building at No. 8 Tacuba, Col. Centro, Mexico City. It includes a large collection representing the history of Mexican art from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid 20th century. It is recognizable by Manuel Tolsá's large equestrian statue of Charles IV of Spain, who was the monarch just before Mexico gained its independence. It was originally in the Zocalo but it was moved to several locations, not out of deference to the king but rather to conserve a piece of art, according to the plaque at the base. It arrived at its present location in 1979.
Jacques Gelman was a producer of Mexican films and a collector of Mexican Art.
Gelman was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia from a rich noble Jewish family who emigrated in Germany during the October revolution . During the 1920s, he worked as a still photographer in Europe at a motion picture studios, and became a distributor of French films. He arrived in Mexico just before the outbreak of World War II, and as a result of the conflict, found himself stranded there. In 1943, he became the third partner of Posa Films, along with Mario Moreno and Santiago Reachi Fayad. The company's prime asset was Moreno's comedic talent, and the three producers crafted and marketed the image of Cantinflas.
It was Gelman who proposed the recreation of European classics as a way to appeal to audiences outside Latin America. Los tres mosqueteros and Romeo y Julieta were produced during this period, and Los tres mosqueteros was selected to be screened at the first Cannes Film Festival in 1946. The endorsement of Charlie Chaplin secured the feature's billing, but in the eyes of French critics, it failed to live up to Chaplin's proclamation that Moreno was the leading comic of the era. The French people, however, were not as hostile to "Cantinflas", seeing in him a Mexican version of their Fernandel. In 1958, a rift between Gelman and Reachi concerning some wrongdoing in contracts with Columbia Pictures by Gelman and Moreno, allowed Gelman to produce the film without Reachi as a Producer. dubbing into French over the objections of Reachi who advise him about the possible poor reception of Moreno's dialect to the Europeans. The imitative efforts at universalize failed to appeal to non-Spanish-speaking audiences.
Gelman stood beside Moreno throughout his career, accompanying him during the filming of Around the World in 80 Days and to the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. When the three partners disbanded in 1960 over the creation of Pepe, As Reachi formed a new company named Posa Films Internacional, S.A. 1959, all assets of Posa Films, S.A and its obligations, was transferred to the new company 1961. After Reachi retired as Producer, President and partner of Posa Films INTERNACIONAL S.A. Gelman had the opportunity to change his status as a Manager to a new Producer of Cantinflas movies..
Jacques Gelman died on July 22, 1986 in Houston, Texas where he was undergoing a heart operation.
He and his wife Natasha were avid collectors of Mexican art, and became its patrons when they commissioned Diego Rivera to paint her portrait. Mexican painter Gunther Gerzso, a friend of Gelman, painted his portrait and gave it to him as a gift. Upon Mrs. Gelman's death in 1998, their collection was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has since been exhibited at the Seattle Art Museum and New York City's Museo del Pueblo. A great part of their collection is also on exhibit in the newly founded museum "Muros" in Cuernavaca, following Natasha Gelman's wish.
The Frida Kahlo Museum , also known as the Blue House for the structure's cobalt-blue walls, is a historic house museum and art museum dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It is located in the Colonia del Carmen neighborhood of Coyoacán in Mexico City. The building was Kahlo's birthplace, the home where she grew up, lived with her husband Diego Rivera for a number of years, and where she later died in a room on the upper floor. In 1957, Diego Rivera donated the home and its contents in order to turn it into a museum in Frida's honor.
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, personal items, and more. The collection is displayed in the rooms of the house which remains much as it was in the 1950s. It is the most popular museum in Coyoacán and one of the most visited in Mexico City.
The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura , located in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, is the Mexican institution in charge of coordinating artistic and cultural activities in the country.
On November 23, 1946, president Miguel Alemán Valdés proposed the creation of the INBA, and it was formally opened on 1 January 1947, as a branch of the Secretaría de Educación Pública . The first head of the INBA was Carlos Chávez, who created a new orchestra for the Conservatory, the current Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional.The institute includes many departments, artistic ensembles, three national centers for storage of the literary stock, 29 schools and further institutions. The school of design and handicrafts was founded by José Chávez Morado in 1962.One of the important services the institute provides for the nation is to protect, along with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, monuments and buildings deemed cultural patrimony. INAH is entrusted with 'archaeological' and 'historical' structures, zones and remnants, while INBAL is entrusted with 'artistic' buildings and monuments . The valuation of aesthetic value is left to the Comisión Nacional de Zonas y Monumentos Artísticos . This commission is composed of the Director of INBAL, a representative of the Secretaría de Desarrollo Urbano y Ecología, a representative of UNAM, and three individuals affiliated with the arts picked by the Director. Edifices deemed worthy by the commission are catalogued in the Registro Público de Monumentos y Zonas Artísticos .The institute provides education from elementary school through to postgraduate level; one of the educational institutions that INBAL manages is CEDARTS which is focused on artistic education.
There are 12 CEDARTS in Mexico, three in Mexico City and the rest in some other states.
CEDART "Alfonso Reyes" Monterrey, Nuevo León
CEDART "David Alfaro Siqueiros" Chihuahua, Chihuahua
CEDART "Diego Rivera" Ciudad de México, CDMX
CEDART "Emilio Abreu Gómez" Mérida, Yucatán
CEDART "Frida Kahlo" Ciudad de México, CDMX
CEDART "Ignacio Mariano de las Casas" Querétaro, Querétaro
CEDART "José Clemente Orozco" Guadalajara, Jalisco
CEDART "José Eduardo Pierson" Hermosillo, Sonora
CEDART "Juan Rulfo" Colima, Colima
CEDART "Luis Spota Saavedra" Ciudad de México, CDMX
CEDART "Miguel Bernal Jiménez" Morelia, Michoacán
CEDART "Miguel Cabrera" Oaxaca, OaxacaIn addition to the educational offerings, there are museums, galleries and buildings under the INBAL management, that the institute often uses to present different types of artistic entertainment to the general public, such as "tempestad" or a season of flamenco dance.
The Museo Nacional de San Carlos is a Mexican national art museum devoted to European art, located in the Cuauhtémoc borough in Mexico City. The museum is housed in the Palace of the Count of Buenavista, a neoclassical building at Puente de Alvarado No. 50, Colonia Tabacalera, Mexico City. It contains works by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Parmigianino, Frans Hals, Anthony van Dyck, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Auguste Rodin and other well-known European painters and sculptors.
