Museo Mural Diego Rivera

__

Housing only one painting, the Diego Rivera Mural Museum is frequently overlooked among the vast number of world-class museums in Mexico City. This is home to the mural Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central. Rivera painted it for the Hotel del Prado Misión in 1947. In painting, most of the most important figures in the history of Mexico share a space that compacts 400 years of history at a time.

The museum exhibits some other works, usually from the 20th century and has shown photography, painting, graphics and sculpture. The museum also participates in research, exhibit development, and offers guided tours, readings, workshops, and recreational spaces.

The building
El edificio del museo fue construido en 1986 para exhibir la obra que anteriormente formaba parte del Hotel del Prado, que había estado en lo que actualmente es el parque frente al museo. Gravemente dañado en el terremoto de 1985 el hotel fue demolido, excepto por esta obra de arte. El mural tuvo que ser sostenido por un peso de 15 toneladas y el edificio del museo se construyó alrededor del mural. The museum building was built in 1986 to display the work that was previously part of the Hotel del Prado, which had been in what is now the park in front of the museum. Badly damaged in the 1985 earthquake the hotel was demolished except for this piece. The mural had to be supported by a weight of 15 tons and the museum building was built around the mural.

The Mural

The architect Carlos Obregón Santacilia asked Diego Rivera to make a mural for the Versalles dining room of the Hotel del Prado. The subject was the Alameda Central, right across the street from the hotel. The 4.70 x 15.6 m fresco was completed in 1947. It depicts more than 150 figures, including many of the most prominent figures in Mexican history. Among them are Hernán Cortés, Benito Juárez, Maximiliano de Habsburgo, Francisco I. Madero and Porfirio Díaz. There are also people from multiple levels of society including street vendors and revolutionaries. Frida Kahlo makes an appereance like some of Diego Rivera’s other wives and daughters. The Alameda Central provides the entire epic mural.

It is one of the most accessible Diego Rivera murals in the city, and a visit can be combined with a lot of cultural and city attractions in the immediate surroundings of the museum.