in process. Photo from ArtDaily.org on Friday, January 28, 2011. (Scroll down to find it.)
MEXICO CITY - Mexican Alfonso Miranda, directorof the Soumaya Musuem poses in front of the Soumaya Museum which belongs to Carlos Slim, It was designed by Fernando Romero whom I think is his son-in.law. It is supposed to open in April.
From Carlos Slim's website: (my translation)
The mission of the Museo Soumaya of the Carlos Slim Foundation is to share the arts with the Mexican public as well as with foreigners for their education and esthetic enjoyment. at the same time that it guarantees conservation of art and research.
It is a space for an encounter with the arts. Especially outstanding is the collection of sculpture by Auguste Rodin, the most important outside of France, as is also the work of ancient European masters, of impressionism, and of the moderns. Tours of the museum connect visitors with the sensibility of El Greco, Murillo, Rubens, Cranach, Brueghel, Tiziano and Tintoretto as well as Van Gogh, Toulouse. Lautrec, Rouault, Matisse, Picasso, Miró, Dalí and others.
Mexican epochs are given expression in mesoamerican and colonial works, as well as works from independent Mexico from nationalism and The Rupture. The religious canvases of José de Páez, Miguel Cabrera, and Juan Carrea, the portraits of José Agustín Arrieta, Hermenogildo Bustos, Jossé María Estrada, the landscapes of European artists such as Rugendas, Löhr, Egerton, Chapman, the universality of the painters of the the 20th scentury such as Rivera, Siquieros, Orozco and Tamayo, and those who undertook different roads such as Soriano, Cuevas and Toledo enrich the diversity of this region.
Applied arts also are presented here to give a living context to other epochs. Textiles, fashion, photography, ceramics, coins, medals, miniature portraits and reliquaries enrich the vision of ancient forms of life.
In the environment of this colleciton of collections, Museo Soumaya includes a broad offering of permanent, temporary and traveling exhibits, courses, conferences, workshops, activities, publications and suervices with the purpose of bringing art to a variety of publics.
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This link will take you to a much more extensive description of the very unusual building that is to house the museum. It's worth looking at. It is an extraordinary effort.
Soumaya was the name of Slim's late wife, and it was she who started collecting art and it is I would say for her that Slim has continued on such a grand scale. It seems their marriage was truly a marriage of amores de sus vidas. Slim has never remarried.
I for one am eagerly looking forward to visiting it when it opens.