Saturday, January 3, 2015

Mexico City revisited 4 - post office, Franz Meyer

The Palacio de Correos de Mexico (Postal Palace of Mexico City), Mexico City's main post office, is quite a grand old building and so deserved a visit on my way to the Centro one day.

Another highly recommended attraction that I'd not yet visited was the Museo Franz Meyer housed in a former monastery and hospital. Adjacent are two churches and, yes, you're not imagining it, there's quite a lean to one of them.

The museum opened in 1986 to house, display and maintain Latin America's largest collection of decorative arts. The collection was amassed by stockbroker and financial professional Franz Meyer who collected fine artworks, books, furniture, ceramics, textiles and many other types of decorative items over fifty years of his life. A large portion comes from Europe and Asia but most comes from Mexico itself with items dating from the 15th to the 20th centuries. Many pieces in the collection are fine handcrafts, such as textiles and Talavera pottery, and they are important because they are items that often did not survive because most did consider them worth preserving. The first thing of note was the huge collection of framed poster art displayed around the entire circumference of the interior courtyard covering a wide range of subject matter:

environmental,

political,

humour,

shows, advertising

art,

etc,

There was a a display of that Mexican style skeleton art by a Ruth D Lechuga,

a show of modern, and quite whimsical, jewelry,

 

And a very beautiful library and collection of furnishings.

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment