MUSEO ANAHUACALLI

Museo Anahuacalli

A visit to Mexican painter Diego Rivera’s fortress of central American art.

Built from the same volcanic stone on which it sits, Museo Anahuacalli was Diego Rivera’s final parting gift to Mexico City, one that wasn’t even finished until seven years after his passing. Inside, the museum houses Rivera’s extensive collection of pre-hispanic ceramics, each acquired throughout his lifetime. As per his will, it also rotates through a series of contemporary art exhibitions, each of which speak in some way to the founding purpose of the museum.

It is in essence a shrine to central American artists both past and present, giving voice to the causes and cultural priorities of the region. For this, Rivera collaborated with architect Juan O’Gorman, with whom he’d previously worked with on his home. O’Gorman was an associate of Frank Lloyd Wright and was, like Wright, very invested in defining a native and organic vernacular for modern architecture. It would be wrong to call him a traditionalist, but he was very sceptical of the growing international style that the big European names of the time were championing all over the world.

O’Gorman’s approach is very evident in the Anahuacalli. It’s an intensely imposing design, one with more than a hint of Meso-American influence. Indeed if you’ve been to any of the major archeological sites in the area, you’ll recognise the shapes and material palette immediately, the entire structure is built from the same stone that cultures have been using here for millennia.

Inside, the ground floor is very dimly lit. The narrow windows aren’t even made of glass, but instead thin sheets of translucent onyx. That’s where you’ll find Rivera’s personal collection. Further up, things become a lot brighter, especially in the main hall with its enormous glass facade and triple height ceiling, a space usually reserved for large scale installations but also one of the only parts of the museum to hold some of Rivera’s own works.