Opening a Door for Latin American Art

Never mind the economic crisis, the champagne corks are popping at the opening of the first temporary exhibition at Buenos Aires’ new Museum of Latin American Art.

Spending $25 million to build a museum to showcase a collection worth double that could be seen as politically incorrect, as Argentina’s economy writhes in its fourth year of agonizing recession.

But Eduardo Costantini was not to be deterred from his self-appointed mission: putting Latin America back on the art world’s map.

“I want to restore value to our own idiosyncrasies and culture,” said Costantini, a soft-spoken, 55-year-old real estate magnate. “The presence of Latin American art was lost internationally and even here during our dark decades.”

The “dark decades”--of brutal military dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s, followed by the continent’s “lost decade” of hyperinflation and economic quick fixes in the 1980s--left Latin American art on the periphery of world trends.

Even at home, artists were often driven underground by harsh, authoritarian regimes that did not tolerate dissidence.

So it is apt that the first temporary exhibition at the Malba, as Costantini’s museum is known here, was “The Politics of Difference,” a celebration of the diversities of all the countries of the Americas.

“For years, Latin America considered the ‘foreign model’--even in art--to be superior to our indigenous version,” Costantini said. “This shows that’s not true.”

In the museum, works by 110 artists from 26 countries--from the Dutch Antilles to Venezuela--demonstrate that the democracy that took root across most of Latin America in the 1990s has given artists unbridled creativity.

Sculptures, installations and traditional paintings deal with themes of diversity in race, culture, creed, sexuality and politics.

On the second floor, sandwiched between two floors of the temporary show, is Costantini’s permanent collection. It has grown from “one or two works that weren’t of museum quality” in the 1980s to 220 today.

The works include “Manifestacion,” a classic, naive portrait of disgruntled workers painted in 1934 by Argentina’s Antonio Berni; “The Widows” by Colombia’s Fernando Botero; and Frida Kahlo’s 1942 self-portrait “Auto Retrato con Chango y Loro.”

The Kahlo, acquired in 1996, cost Costantini $3.2 million, a record price for any piece of Latin American art.

Unlike many art buyers, Costantini doesn’t shun publicity, even when record prices are being paid. His purchases in New York City, Mexico City or Sao Paulo are often made with a very public flourish and accompanied across Latin America by newspaper headlines.

He says it is part of a strategy to market the museum--a marble, steel and glass structure, armed with “intelligent technology” to control temperatures and humidity. Built without assistance from the Argentine authorities, it was inaugurated Sept. 20.

“It’s good advertising for the collection and for the museum,” Costantini said.

“I believe you have to show your face at auctions. This is a very public collection.”

“The museum is important for art all over Latin America,” said Cristina R. Duran, a critic for the arts section of Brazilian business daily Valor. “It will give added value to Latin American art.”

Some of the important Brazilian works in the collection were previously owned by private Brazilian collectors who never showed them to the public.

“Costantini is not like that,” she said. “He opens art up. He wants everyone to see it.”

The museum--like the collection--transcends national boundaries. Its curator is Agustin Arteaga, who formerly directed Mexico City’s Museum of Fine Arts.

“The great thing to see here is that we are attracting youngsters you wouldn’t normally see in a museum in Buenos Aires,” said Arteaga. “They are our customers of the future.”

He stresses that the museum has an important social role to play: It gives guided tours to needy children, and counts many young artists among its 85 staff.

“It’s better for them to learn to be an art handler here than ending up as a taxi driver,” Arteaga said.

Despite Argentina’s economic woes, the museum has attracted 90,000 visitors in its first three months. Nobody has complained about the $4 entry fee, although all state-run museums are free.

“People see they are paying something, but supporting something,” Arteaga said.