Art in Atlántico
C. Restrepo, Siera Nevada de Santa Marta, 1999.
Today, we attended the official inauguration of the new Museo del Atlántico in Barranquilla, a city on the north coast of Colombia, capital city of the department (or state) of Atlántico. The celebration brought forth two exhibitions: a curated show and the permanent collection. Approximately 100 works of uneven quality were shown on two floors of a renovated colonial building which used to belong to an old French family, the Duguand. Picaditas tipicas (Colombian hors-d’oeuvres) were served in the typical congenial atmosphere and it was the moment to renew old friendships such as with Miguel Iriarte, the director of the Aduana (Old custom building) where we had a show many years ago, and the director Maria-Eugenia Castro of the Museum of Modern Art of Barranquilla.
Two of our favourite works were Carlo Restrepo’s Siera Nevada de Santa Marta (aluminium based), and this wounded bitch with her six puppies, a perfect reflection of Colombian poverty, a work which made me forget to take note of the artist (a good sign). As for the Restrepo’s work, it is a very good interpretation of colours and the space of the region, a landscape done differently.
The Department of Atlántico is working hard in bringing cultures to Barranquilla’s old center where crime and poverty are rampant. Let’s hope by bringing art to this extremely interesting part of the city, will bring happiness and on the long run, education, health and wealth.
The Museum is at Call 35 Cra. 39, Barranquilla, Colombia.
Sorry for forgetting to take the name
Thank you for this tour…. I will and have been in gratitude to Lise King for her perspectives and ambition which brings us all into the light. Thank you for including us into your extended world beyond Sturgeon and North Bay and Corbeil. I know , as an outsider 35 years ago from Toronto, Im now as much a Northerner as I was in my Childhood dreaming of the weekend adventures to Temagami in the late 40’s and 50’s and throughout my life. I so treasure those memories and the people that I continue to meet to the present. I love the Polish language as my first and then English and, Ojibwe, as time would prove,and French, as the second if not first language of my children and grandchildren.Still, my daughter teaches what she remembers of the Polish she learned as a child with my family, to her two daughters who delight in calling me their special Dziadzia..or…. Dziadek…. meaning grandfather.
How does this relate to this , your presentation ?…. You taught me to live my art in that presentation in lise king’s studio and it’s what drives me and I appreciate this posting as another’s gallery of equivalent life stories. Thank you from this old man.
Thank you John for these nice words. But as you know more than me, “Art is Life”. And it is extremely hard to make this understandable to the vast majority.
Art is Life …. Yes and you succeed in delivering the message,,,, Bravo.
Par vous, je viens d’apprendre Baranquilla et son nouveau musée….gros merci….caresse