On my second day in Bogotá, I visited several more museums. The first was the Botero museum, dedicated to the Colombian artist Fernando Botero. He seems to be committed to paint and sculpt people as fat midgets. Just look at his representation of the president and the first lady:
All of his work looks like that - and he has been pretty productive, filling an entire museum and then leaving some for other museums in the city.
In the same complex as the Botero museum were three more museums, all free to visit. The buildings alone would have been worth a visit, very beautifully done!
In one of the museums, I found this photograph - and it made me realize how much I miss Japanese food! Maybe I will have to go back one day, just for the food ;-)
My next stop was the colonial art museum. They mostly had religious artwork which I didn't really care about, but one of the rooms had a wider focus, looking at the Colombian society in the 18th century. One of the displays was interactive and let visitors find out if they would have been eligible to enter a university back then. There were almost twenty conditions you had to fulfill, such as being white, male, not born in the Americas, strictly catholic, without any non-catholic or non-white relations, and so on and so forth. Luckily, we have come a long way since then!
On my way to the last museum for the day, I passed the Plaza Mayor with the huge cathedral on one side and the Palacio de la Justicia on the other.
My last museum for the day, then, was the national museum - another museum with free entry! It covers all of Colombia's history with a fascinating collection of exhibits: pottery, paintings, sculptures, models, daily objects, newspapers, etc. Detailed explanations for each and every piece are provided, but unfortunately my head was too full and my time too limited to take it all in ;-)
All of his work looks like that - and he has been pretty productive, filling an entire museum and then leaving some for other museums in the city.
In the same complex as the Botero museum were three more museums, all free to visit. The buildings alone would have been worth a visit, very beautifully done!
In one of the museums, I found this photograph - and it made me realize how much I miss Japanese food! Maybe I will have to go back one day, just for the food ;-)
My next stop was the colonial art museum. They mostly had religious artwork which I didn't really care about, but one of the rooms had a wider focus, looking at the Colombian society in the 18th century. One of the displays was interactive and let visitors find out if they would have been eligible to enter a university back then. There were almost twenty conditions you had to fulfill, such as being white, male, not born in the Americas, strictly catholic, without any non-catholic or non-white relations, and so on and so forth. Luckily, we have come a long way since then!
On my way to the last museum for the day, I passed the Plaza Mayor with the huge cathedral on one side and the Palacio de la Justicia on the other.
My last museum for the day, then, was the national museum - another museum with free entry! It covers all of Colombia's history with a fascinating collection of exhibits: pottery, paintings, sculptures, models, daily objects, newspapers, etc. Detailed explanations for each and every piece are provided, but unfortunately my head was too full and my time too limited to take it all in ;-)
