SLIM PICKIN'S

    Because Bob felt much better today, we went to the Museo Soumaya.

   But first, a note on transportation. We summoned a Uber taxi, which appeared almost instantaneously. So far so good. But how to get back? Since we needed Wifi to summon one, our travel guru, Margaret, sent us an email saying it was simple. Just go to the nearest Starbucks. They have free Wifi. Oh, and the nearest one is right next to the museum. Just turn right when you leave the museum and . . .

   How on earth does she know all this?

   Built by one of the three or four richest men on earth,

Carlos Slim, the building itself is worth seeing. Outside, it's said to resemble the neck of Mrs. Slim ( ! ), but inside, it reminded me of the Guggenheim in New York. You take the lift to the top, then walk down ramps visiting each exhibition space along the way.
    The crown jewel of the spaces, however, is not where the elevator lets you off. Instead, you walk UP a ramp, and gradually the top floor reveals itself. It's one huge, open room lit by natural light from the dome, and each work of art is lit by one or more of a network of spotlights on overhead beams.

   Mrs. Slim, apparently, liked Rodin, so her husband dutifully assembled the largest collection of casts of Rodin sculptures outside of France, more than 300 works in all. These and everything else in the museum came from his personal art collection. On exhibit are works by van Gogh, Matisse,

Monet, El Greco, Claudel, Tintoretto, Renoir, Picasso, Miro, and others. In fact, there's something for everyone including a coin collection, Japanese ivory carvings (amazing!), even a Faberge egg.
    Most of the Rodin sculptures on the top floor are familiar, such as The Thinker and The Kiss, so I won't include photos of them. Instead, I'll mention a collection by the 19^th

Century printmaker, caricaturist, and sculptor Honre Daumier. I remember seeing some of his prints, such as this one of a woman giving an astonished man what-for, and an assembly of notables. 

What amazed me was how Daumier was able to turn what 

could have been a group picture of notables into a collection of 3-D sculptures, each one a masterpiece that would, I'm sure, have been recognizable by his contemporaries, but somehow exaggerated enough to render his chief characteristic satirically. (Google this for close-ups.) You almost knew someone like each sculpture.

    Like this example, there were many other supportive collections of sculptures and many more collections of artists on the floors below, but according to Bob, no museum could lay claim to world class status unless it included at least one Saint Sebastian (our on-going joke). No sooner had he

mentioned this, than bingo! There it was, one of the most graphic renditions of the saint who ended up being a target for archery practice.
    I cannot conclude my survey of this amazing museum, Slim's gift to his native country and the world, without including the following statue. I don't remember who sculpted it (NOT Rodin), or who it represents, but isn't it fabulous?  

[This text is all in bold. I have no idea why, but I've tried to undo it. BlogSpot won't let me. Please forgive...]