The Anahuacalli Museum, a new experience

The Anahuacalli Museum, a new experience
Anahuacalli Museum, South of Mexico City

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The Anahuacalli Museum

The Anahuacalli Museum. See more than 2,000 pre-Hispanic pieces and figures from Diego Rivera’s collection; don’t miss the large-format sketches for some of his famous murals; also see the large, polychrome, cardboard figures that Diego collected, and; of course, enjoy the museum surroundings of more than 46,000 square meters of natural land, just as it was 2,000 years ago.

 

 

Anahuacalli house of the Anahuac

The word Anahuacalli means House of the Anahuac; which the ancient, Aztec name for the Valley of Mexico, and; it also means house surrounded by water.

The Anahuacalli museum building is a large, imposing volume, built of gray and black volcanic rock, from the soil on which the museum building is now; the rock lava expelled by the Xitle volcano eruption, more than 2,000 years ago.

The large-format sketches for some of Diego Rivera's famous murals
The large-format sketches for some of Diego Rivera’s famous murals, at the Anahuacalli Museum

 

In Diego Rivera’s former studio you can see here the large-format sketches for some of his famous murals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The enormous, polychrome, cardboard figures or kind of puppets that Diego Rivera collected
The enormous, polychrome, cardboard figures or kind of large puppets that Diego Rivera collected at the Anahuacalli museum.

Also see some of the large size, polychrome, cardboard figures or puppets that Diego Rivera collected; as well as some of these large figures that the museum has collected are here.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, at the end of your visit take a guided tour of the ecological space on the premises of the Anahuacalli Museum; more than 46,000 square meters of nature just as it was 2,000 years ago, and yet still part of Mexico City.

Diego, a Pre-Hispanic Art Collector

Diego Rivera started buying pre-Hispanic pieces upon his return from Europe in the 1920s; becoming the greatest pre-Hispanic art collector of post-revolutionary Mexico; eventually acquiring more than 50,000 pieces throughout his life.

A house for Diego’s pre-Hispanic collection

Therefore, the Anahuacalli arises from Diego’s initial idea to build a space to house part of his pre-Hispanic collection; then Rivera also wanted to have a studio to work on his paintings and sketches for his murals, intended for large public as well as private spaces.

Diego Rivera’s legacy to the people of Mexico

Until the 1940s, large area of the southern part of Mexico City was under a layer of volcanic rock; the lava that emerged from the last eruption of the Xitle volcano, which has practically disappeared with the growth of Mexico City.

Then it is interesting for the visitor to experience, in this same area, of this property in the southern area of Mexico City; which Diego bought in the 1930’s, preserved to date in its wild state.

Diego and Frida Kahlo

Fortunately, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo agreed to leave to the people of Mexico their possessions and collections. Diego would keep his in the Anahuacalli Museum and; Frida would kept hers in her home at Coyoacán, known as “La Casa Azul” (The Blue House).

The Dolores Olmedo Collection

In the same way, years later, Dolores “Lola” Olmedo, close friend of Frida and Diego, and a very important collector of their works, also left her collection to the people of Mexico; along with her old property of Xochimilco, which today is the Dolores Olmedo Museum.

Thus, given Diego’s close relationship with Frida and their mutual friendship with Lola; the Anahuacalli, the Frida Kahlo Museum and the Dolores Olmedo Museum, all three located south of Mexico City, are traditionally regarded as sister (amigos) museums.

We also recommend visiting the Diego Rivera Studio house in the neighborhood of Coyoacán in Mexico City.

Anahuacalli, Architecture and Cultural Heritage

A front view of the Anahuacalli Museum building

The Anahuacalli Museum building is a solid construction of symmetrical and pyramidal volumes, truncated along its edges.

Architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Juan O’Gorman

Diego Rivera saw some sketches by the Mexican architect Juan O’Gorman and after consulting with the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright; he designed this building himself.

Integrating pre-Hispanic Architecture

Since Rivera based his design on his own vision, on how to integrate his project with the roots of pre-Hispanic architecture and to the museum’s land natural environment.

Finally the project materialized in this building; covered, piece by piece, on both its façade and interior walls, with volcanic stone, torn from the same soil of the museum building.

Murals in all the ceilings 

One of the murals made of small-multicolor-stones adorning the ceilings of the Anahuacalli Museum .
A small multicolored stones made mural adorning one of Anahuacalli Museum ceilings.

There are many multicolored murals made of small volcanic stones, cut in different sizes and shapes, of different colors; one mural in each ceiling of the Anahuacalli.

Resemblance with Mayan architecture

Some scholars also see in this construction a sort of replica of the Mayan architecture of the archaeological site of Uxmal; nevertheless this is not clear at first sight.

Diego’s Studio House

Juan O’Gorman, also a painter artist, already had designed and built for Diego, at the beginning of the 1930’s; the first house in Mexico to typify Functionalist Architecture; what it is now known as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Studio House, at what was the small town (pueblo) of San Angel, on the outskirts of Mexico City. Therefore, it is likely that he played an important role on the planning and on the construction works of this museum.

Ruth Rivera Marín and Dolores Olmedo completed the work

It is noteworthy to say that Ruth Rivera Marín, daughter of Diego, had an industrious role on this construction from the death of her father, in 1957, until completion of this Museum in 1963 and to its inauguration in 1964; aided by the collaboration and generous sponsorship of Dolores Olmedo.

The Anahuacalli Museum Collections

The 2,000 pre-Hispanic pieces classification process and the display in the museum’s building, at a later stage, was overseen by poet Carlos Pellicer; by displaying this collection in three underworlds.

The underworlds in the Anahuacalli

The lowest is the underworld of the dead, descending beneath the entrance to the museum; the Tlaloc-Water stone sculpture and Aztec ceramics.

Next-highest level, the museum access level, is the underworld of earthly life; where is the dual altar and pieces of the pre-Hispanic cultures of western Mexico.

And, on the highest level is the overworld of the gods; there are pieces of the Mexica and Mixtec cultures.

The lighting of the underworlds 

As you pass from one underworld to another, the illumination changes from semi-darkness in the underworld to the sunlight that enters the windows of various geometric shapes.

Hence to get such lighting effects, the museum windows topped with materials ranging from alabaster, in the underworld of the dead; through translucent material, in the earthly world; to transparent materials, in the overworld of the gods.

Popular Art at Anahuacalli

An altar of the dead dedicated to Diego Rivera, with huge cardboard stylized bodies, inside Anahuacalli Museum.
Inside the Anahuacalli Museum the altar of the dead, dedicated to Diego Rivera, with huge cardboard stylized bodies, .

The Day of the Dead

Every year in the month of November Mexico celebrates the festivities of the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos). Then, by initiative and the contributions of Dolores Olmedo the Anahuacalli Museum has also celebrated these festivities for more than 50 years; by setting inside the museum, an altar of the dead dedicated to Diego Rivera, with huge cardboard stylized bodies.

Huge cardboard stylized bodies

Of Course here you can see huge , multicolored, stylized bodies made of cardboard resembling the skeletons of happy dead people, as well as stylized cardboard puppets from the altars of the dead.

The Altar of the dead

Set also as an altar, a pyramid of squire spaces occupied with stone sculptures.
Set also as an altar, at the Anahuacalli Museum, a pyramid of squire spaces occupied with stone sculptures.

On the background of the temporary altar of the dead you can see, set also as an altar, a pyramid of squire spaces occupied with stone sculptures from different pre-Hispanic cultures.

 

 

Diego Rivera’s studio

The Mural “Man at the Crossroads” 

In Diego Rivera’s studio are the sketches for his controversial mural “Man at the Crossroads”(El Hombre en la Encrucijada de Caminos); painted at the Rockefeller Center in New York, in 1939. It depicts, on the one hand, the misery of the working class as victims of capitalism and, on the other, the happiness and solidarity of workers under socialism.

The mural destroyed

The sketch for the Diego Rivera's mural "Man at the Crossroads"(El Hombre en la Encrucijada de Caminos). Anahuacalli Museum.
The sketch for the Diego Rivera’s mural “Man at the Crossroads”(El Hombre en la Encrucijada de Caminos) at the Anahuacalli Museum.

The original mural included portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, central figures of Soviet communism. The Rockefeller family, a symbol of American capitalism, who hired Rivera to create this mural, requires him to remove those portraits; nonetheless Rivera doesn’t accept and finally, he received the corresponding payment for his finished work, and the mural destroyed in one night.

Subsequently, the Government of Mexico asked Diego Rivera to paint the same mural again; which is now exhibited, with some changes, at the Palace of Fine Arts (Palacio de Bellas Artes) in Mexico City.

At the Anahuacalli entrance

At the museum’s entrance there is a perfectly leveled area of polished volcanic rock, submerged about 40 centimeters in the ground; here all kinds of events such as exhibitions, concerts and celebrations take place.

An Aztec ball game field

You might also see also a polished floor of volcanic rock, a replica of a space which would used for the traditional Aztec ball game field.

Anahuacalli Museum – General Information:

Address:

Museo 150, San Pablo Tepetlapa
04620, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México
‎Telephone numbers:

(+52 55) 5617 3797 or 5617 4310, 5617 6825 and 5617 6874

And visit hours:

Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 am-5 pm

Fees:

– General public entrance fees: $60 pesos

– Foreigners entrance fees: $80 pesos

– Elementary and high school students, college students and teachers (private institutions): $ 30 pesos

– Elderly, preschool children and public elementary schools: $15 pesos

– Free entrance: children under 6 years old and people with disabilities.

– Free entrance: residents of San Pablo Tepetlapa, El Reloj, La Candelaria, Ruíz Cortines, Santa Úrsula, Díaz Ordaz and El Rosario, showing their current credentials.

– Free entrance when presenting ICOM credential

– With your ticket you have a courtesy visit to the Frida Kahlo Museum, valid for one year.

Photography Permissions:

– General cost of photo permission: $30 pesos

– Photo Permission for Elementary school students: $10 pesos

* Shooting videos with cellphones or cameras is not allowed. 

 

Background in science and technology. Former executive responsibilities in the telecommunications and chemical industries. Modern painting and contemporary art. Enjoys biking and walking. Reading and good films. Now in web publishing