PRE-HISPANIC ART
One of the most interesting facets of Diego Rivera was his collection of pre-Hispanic art. For over thirty years, Rivera bought, exchanged, and received these treasures as gifts, at a time when such appropriations were still permitted by law. The anthropologist Eulalia Guzmán, a friend of both the painter and Frida Kahlo, assisted them in completing the first catalog of the vast legacy he had accumulated.
Today, the collection surpasses forty-five thousand works, of which two thousand comprise the permanent exhibition at the Anahuacalli Museum.
As a collector, Diego Rivera became fascinated with the pre-Colombian art produced by cultures in Western Mexico. These works reveal the everyday life of the people of that region -one that encompasses Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Michoacán- and hence, were the painter’s favorites.
The distribution of the works among the twenty-three rooms of the Anahuacalli Museum corresponds to Rivera’s aesthetic concept, one that sought to connect the representations of ancient cultures to contemporary art, configuring thus an uninterrupted timeline. Hence, the works bear no explicative cards in order to promote their contemporary appreciation as works of art.
One of the most interesting facets of Diego Rivera was his collection of pre-Hispanic art. For over thirty years, Rivera bought, exchanged, and received these treasures as gifts, at a time when such appropriations were still permitted by law. The anthropologist Eulalia Guzmán, a friend of both the painter and Frida Kahlo, assisted them in completing the first catalog of the vast legacy he had accumulated.
Today, the collection surpasses forty-five thousand works, of which two thousand comprise the permanent exhibition at the Anahuacalli Museum.
As a collector, Diego Rivera became fascinated with the pre-Colombian art produced by cultures in Western Mexico. These works reveal the everyday life of the people of that region -one that encompasses Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Michoacán- and hence, were the painter’s favorites.
The distribution of the works among the twenty-three rooms of the Anahuacalli Museum corresponds to Rivera’s aesthetic concept, one that sought to connect the representations of ancient cultures to contemporary art, configuring thus an uninterrupted timeline. Hence, the works bear no explicative cards in order to promote their contemporary appreciation as works of art.