August 08, 2008, Worth making a trip, By Jim Johnston

August is a great time to visit Mexico City. Many capitalinos head for the hills, the beach or to grandma’s house for summer vacation, so the city quiets down a bit (since I live here I notice the difference, you may not). The rains clear the skies, and usually wait until afternoon siesta time to fall.

Currently, several art exhibits also make it a particularly worthwhile time to visit.

The Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso ( www.sanildefonso.org.mx ) has my vote as one of Mexico City’s best museums. Aside from its location in one of the gems of colonial architecture (Justo Serra 16, just off the Zócalo), the interesting and well-mounted shows of the last few years have raised its status considerably. I wrote last month about the work of Brazilian photographer Vik Munoz (it’s still on—see my blog if you missed it), and now a new show of paintings by Julio Galán (1959-2006) has opened as well. Born in northern Mexico, Galán made it big in the eighties art scene in New York, his flamboyant personal style reflected in his neo-expressionist paintings. His work is a stream of uncensored consciousness: often illogical, with combinations of images and materials that mix refinement with vulgarity, the ephemeral with the tangible. Art critic Roberta Smith wrote this in his obituary in The New York Times: “Mr. Galán’s works often had the heat of colorful circus murals that had been defaced by a very sophisticated vandal.”

His work, reminiscent of Frida Kahlo (a comparison he hated), is (in the artist’s words) “a torture that causes me as much pain as happiness.” Andy Warhol called him the greatest Mexican artist. Go find out for yourself.

The entry fee is 45 pesos (free on Tuesdays). The museum is closed on Mondays.

The Atrio del Templo de San Francisco (entrance on Madero, just behind the Torre Latinoamericana and across from Sanborn’s House of Tiles) is an open-air exhibition space, walled-in by some curious urban architecture. The current show of huge inflated plastic sculptures by Cuban artist Ángel Ricardo Ricardo Ríos (sic) is a delight, as though Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade had landed in the middle of el DF.

Another outdoor art show in the centro features bronze sculptures by José Luis Cuevas placed along Calle Moneda (just off the Zócalo). This renowned Mexican artist (born in 1934, Mexico City) has his own museum at Academia 13 (a few blocks down Calle Moneda to the left).

Although I’ve always found his painting and graphic work uncomfortably derivative of Picasso, the sculptures take on a life of their own, especially on the street, which is lined with magnificent colonial-era buildings.

The Museo de Arte Moderno in Chapultepec Park has always seemed to me a sleepy, dusty place, with a low level of curatorial energy in evidence. So I was happily surprised when I visited a few weeks ago and found the place all spiffed up. The permanent collection, which contains many of Mexico’s most important twentieth-century paintings and sculptures, has been re-organized; I felt I was visiting it for the first time.

A new design section features a scale model of the museum (designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, also architect of the Museum of Anthropology across the street), furniture, graphic design and some beautiful watercolor renderings of buildings in Mexico City.

Two temporary exhibits here are worth seeing. Spanish-born Remedios Varo (1908–1963), an important surrealist artist, is represented by many of her finest paintings. My favorite piece of the show, however, was a cookbook with a recipe calling for 12 legs of lamb (wool removed), 26 eggs, 40 bricks and 3 meters of silk. After careful cooking, the whole dish is “tossed out the window in the direction of Saturn.” Don’t miss the illustrations she did for a Bayer aspirin promotion in 1948—a series of weirdly violent scenes that are clearly way beyond the power of aspirin to remedy. The show closes August 24.

Roberto Turnbull (Mexico, 1959) has been a noted figure in the Mexico City art scene for years. His abstract paintings and drawings are light and attractive. Like Julio Galán, his technique includes everything but the kitchen sink (or maybe that piece just wasn’t in this show), reflecting his delightfully rambling and inquisitive mind (until November 16).

As you leave the Museo de Arte Moderno, turn left and walk along Reforma. The Rejas de Chapultepec are the tall metal fences that enclose the park, and for several years they have been used as an outdoor photography gallery.

The current exhibit shows the diversity in Mexican culture through images of children.

Whenever you come to Mexico City to look at art, be sure to pick up a copy of Tiempo Libre magazine (comes out on Thursdays) and/or visit this website for the latest listings: www.arte-mexico.com.

Frida Alert: The Museo Dolores Olmedo in Xochimilco is known to have the finest collection of Frida Kahlo’s paintings in the city, but right now many of the best pieces are on loan for a traveling exhibit. It’s still a great museum, but if you’re going to see the “Fridas,” now is not the time.

Jim Johnston, a 10-year resident of San Miguel, now lives in Mexico City. He is the author of Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler. His blog is www.mexicocitydf.blogspot.com.