Now let’s turn to the bright side of the city. The Museo del Oro leaves nobody untouched. Not only does it display an unbelievable 55.000 (!) pieces made of gold and other materials, but the museum is also very cleverly organized.
A short introduction of mining methods and techniques as how the precious metal was worked by the different cultures, leads to the most impressive and exhaustive section: a display of the incredibly delicate and beautiful ornaments that each culture in pre-Hispanic Columbia produced.
Although physically exhausted after leaving the Museo del Oro, we were so inspired that we headed straight for the Museo Botero. This is part of the “Museo de Arte del Banco de la Republica”. Yeap, this complex is as confusing as its very name. There are several entrances; the one we chose took us first through the Coleccion Numismatica of the Casa de Moneda. Rushing through displays of ancient coins and huge minting presses, we finally found the Botero exhibition.
We must confess that we approached this exhibit of Columbia’s most famous painter, Fernando Botero, with a certain suspicion. All we knew was that he focused on portraying and sculpturing “Gorditos”, chubby people / animals / anything. We did not expect to particularly like such kind of artistic presentation.
Well, we left as truly devoted fans of the artist. Botero makes a plump couple dancing together appear like floating weightless elves. Each and every piece is truly aesthetic and often humorous like the chubby-faced Mona Lisa.
Almost tipsy from all this terrific artwork, we even tried to get into the special exhibit, “Andy Warhol, Mr. America”. Luckily, there were so many people lined up that we called it a day and returned Monday refueled with energy. Although we had seen exhibits of Warhol’s work at several occasions, there were a few things that stuck. One was the very powerful installation depicting the four days immediately after John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Others were quotes by Warhol on topics like money or the USA.
Comments are closed.