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Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) - Buenos Aires

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Paul Klee: Barcos en reposo, 1927 tempera on cardboard

Eduardo Sívori: Primavera, 1914 oil on canvas

    The publicly owned National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires is the principal showcase for the art collections of Argentina. Its history appears to be a long struggle between, on the one hand, the desire of art lovers and collectors for an appropriate repository and, on the other, bureaucratic disinterest and inertia. (Recent allegations of corruption and profiteering at the museum's highest level have precipitated an overdue change in its leadership.)  
    As early as 1870, one collector bequeathed fifty paintings to the state on the condition that they be the basis for a museum. Not until 1895 was the museum organized and it opened its first exhibit in rented space in a department store on Christmas day, 1896. By 1908 the collection had grown to nearly 3,500 pieces, but a permanent home for the museum was not achieved for another quarter of a century. The present building, with its strong terra cotta color, opened as the museum in 1933. It was originally a pumping station that took water from the river, filtered it, and moved it on to a storage facility. It's no wonder that the building has more the appearance of a factory (with a neo-classic entryway superimposed) than of a home for a nation's artistic heritage.
    The museum's collections have now grown to some 11,000 pieces, only a small portion of which can be displayed in its relatively small quarters. Covering mostly the 19th and early 20th centuries, both European and Argentine artists are represented, with a token few modern North American works (a fine small Pollock drip painting, a large Louise Nevelson black panel). From earlier art history there is typically just one work representing an artist: one Rembrandt, a 1633 portrait of his sister, a rather unhappy young lady with puffy eyes, a double chin, and a pinched smile; a small version of Rubens' Rape of the Sabine Women; one minor El Greco with his typically elongated figures and religious focus.
    19th century works include a number of Rodin sculptures, including The Kiss, one excellent and typical Henry Moore Reclining Figure, a Manet or two, one not-so-interesting Van Gogh, a room of Degas (mostly pastels), a charming tiny Courbet portrait of his daughter. There's one fine Picasso, too, and a good-sized Antonio Saura oil, an "imagined" portrait of Brigitte Bardot, quite unrecognizable, needless to say, but a good example of Saura's technique.
    In short, Museo National de Bellas Artes is not an encyclopedic collection carefully developed, but rather a somewhat patchy mixture, the result of the collecting interests of its varied benefactors. There are temporary exhibits as well, which supplement the resources of the permanent collections. But it is exceedingly difficult for a foreigner to evaluate the extensive holdings of Argentine art, most of which is not widely known outside of the country. The lack of any wall texts in English prevents the edification of non-Spanish-speaking visitors and does little to encourage further investigation.
    Art lovers visiting Buenos Aires will want to stop by for an hour's browsing which will likely provide few surprises, but a fair, if limited, share of esthetic pleasures.
                                                                                                  -  Arthur Lazere