Buenos Aires – January 2020 – Station to Station Spanish History Tour in Art on the Subway

The Subway Art Tours of Buenos Aires continues with the C Line. This line runs between the two major train stations, Retiro and Constitucion.

We start at Retiro.

There is a direct passage to the Subte from the Retiro concourse.

The first artwork that is seen is by Fernando Allievi. It depicts the harshness and lonliness of living in the big city.

Along the platform are mosaics celebrates diversity in Buenos Aires.

The first stop is Plaza San Martin. The artist Marcela Moujan brought the green space of the plaza into the subway station with this work.

This Neo-expressionist work by Luis Felipe Noe represents the geographical diversity of Argentina: The Mountains, The Pampa and the Jungle.

A collection of eight friezes by Rodolfo Medina celebrate the liberation campaigns that General San Martin lead to free Chile and Peru.

This piece is entitled El Sur, by Luis Fernando Benedit.

When you reach Lavalle Station you begin to get the Spanish history lesson. In this station the landscapes of the Alicante, Valencia, Teruel, Huesca and Zaragoza regions of Spain are celebrated.

In addition to the murals in the stations the accompanying tile work is unique to each. The overall atmosphere of Diagonal Norte station is of hues of blue.

In this station the regions of Avila, Toledo, Soria, Burgos, Madrid and Aranjuez – with some of the more famous buildings of each city are depicted.

The Avenida de Mayo station has this mural entitled ‘Spain and Argentina’, with images representing ideas. On the right Argentina is young and promising, on the left is the old establishment of Spain. The female figure in the center represents the strong relationship of the two countries, with the subway construction underneath showing the work to join the two.

The supports in the center of the platform make a perfect picture frame for this Ignacio Zuloaga Zableta mural showing the massive aqueduct.

As we continue to the Moreno station we are greeted with more Spanish landscapes: Bilbao, Santander, Alava, Navarra, Santiago, Lugo and Asturias are all represented on the murals on both sides of the platform.

Again the tile work leading to the platforms is amazing.

Independencia Station – Landscapes here include Seville, Granada, Cordoba and others.

San Juan Station – The Levante region, where the sun rises.

The history lesson is over, we have reached Constitucion – you are now fully in Argentina. The painter and cartoonist Florencio Molina Campos was famous for the characters of the Pampa region.