MUSEO NACIONAL DE ARTE
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Museum exhibiting paintings from the colonial period, including those of the Rubens school, the painter Melchior Perez Holguin and his school
The National Art Museum (MNA) was installed in the Diez de Medina Palace, built in 1775. Its facade corresponds to the last period of the Andean Baroque.
On the second floor, an exterior gallery displays richly decorated pillars and arches. The roof, covered with tiles, is typically colonial. The corner of the building is decorated with a loggia (open gallery), where a fountain is installed in the center. The museum is accessed through a patio paved with black and white stones, where a majestic interior stone portico unfolds a large semicircular arch between two pillars. The whole is sumptuously carved with shells, flowers and feathers.
The permanent exhibition of the museum is dedicated to the indigenous and mixed race in Bolivia. It gathers more than 70 artistic creations from the pre-Hispanic, colonial, republican and contemporary periods, made by both indigenous and non-indigenous artists. In the first room, you can observe reproductions of rock art, photos of the Chullpares of Macaya in Oruro and paintings of Tiwanaku by Fernando Peñaranda (1919) and Jorge de la Reza (1929). Finally, you will find one of the masterpieces of the painter Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas, the founder of the School of Fine Arts of La Paz, entitled El triunfo de la naturaleza (1928). The second room exhibits the legendary Virgen del Cerro (1720), which is said to have been painted by an anonymous painter. The latter reveals the influence of the Spanish-American Baroque and Spanish artistic techniques during the conquest. It evokes the Andean cosmovision, religiosity, the conquerors of the New World, and especially the Cerro Rico represented by the Virgin Mary. The third and fourth rooms contain paintings by Joseph López de los Ríos and some watercolors by Melchor María Mercado that depict the customs of the villages of the department of Beni, in the north of Bolivia. The next room is dedicated to the Andean woman. The colorful paintings of Miguel Ángel Pantoja, María Luisa Pacheco, David Crespo Gastelú and Genaro Ibañez represent scenes of daily life, the market and the village. Finally, the fifth room exhibits reproductions by Miguel Alandia Pantoja, Walter Solón Romero and, in the more contemporary, works by Raúl Lara, Gíldaro Antezana, Mario Conde or the famous Mamani Mamani.
The museum's temporary exhibitions are renewed several times a year. In the middle of 2023, an exhibition dedicated to women's creation will be set up.