On January 21, the retrospective exhibition «Secret Museum. From the reserve to the gallery» was inaugurated to the public at the National Museum of Fine Arts. The works belong to the museum's collection, but they are the ones that we do not see exhibited in the permanent collection rooms, that is, those that make up its reserve. Paintings, drawings, engravings, photographs, sculptures and installations by some 250 Argentine and foreign artists, from the 14th century to the present day, many of which have never been exhibited.
Entering the museum's large temporary exhibition pavilion, we find a conglomeration of works displayed in the way collections were presented in the 19th century, that is, covering every inch of the wall, close to the floor and ceiling. This, although it is based on a need for space, is not a disadvantage of the exhibition. Grouped by various themes, such as genre - portraits, nudes, landscapes, animals, still lifes, workers and strikes -, or styles - expressionist, romantic, geometric, optical -, each work dialogues with its neighbors. The eyes of those portrayed by Gómez Cornet, Spilimbergo, Emilia Bertolé, Demirjian, García del Molino, Hildara de Llanso and Ripamonte, all Argentine paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries, look at us, together with the penetrating and plush eyes of Enrique Fogwill made with threads and wool by Mondongo, current local artists; those of a girl in a marble bust by Victorien Antoine Bastet, a French artist from the 19th century, and the gazes of Victoria Ocampo and Charles Baudelaire, in old photographs.
Portrait of Rosario (Portrait of a Girl), oil painting by Ramón Gómez Cornet.
Another advantage of the concentrated collection of pieces is the surprise. Among many, paintings emerge that we remember having seen hanging in the museum years ago, we discover new beauties that we fall in love with, we recognize famous signatures, such as in an engraving by Picasso, in some erotic photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe, in a small sculpture by Leonora Carrington, or we see again iconic paintings from our history, such as the Portrait of Juan Manuel de Rosas by Raymond Auguste Quinsac Monvoisin; The Bath by Prilidiano Pueyrredón or the enormous oil painting First Steps by Antonio Berni. It was a pleasant surprise to find several paintings by the brilliant Fermín Eguía, who recently passed away.
Heracles, The Archer, by the French sculptor Émile Antoine Bourdelle. Behind, various nudes, including one by Luis Centurión, another by Vladimir Becic, a Yugoslav painter.
An unmissable exhibition for art lovers. For how many more years, after the exhibition is dismantled, will these jewels return to the darkness of the MNBA reserve! Secret museum. From the reserve to the gallery can be visited until May 4, 2025 in the Museum's Temporary Exhibition Pavilion, from Tuesday to Friday, from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. [last entry], and on Saturdays and Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.