Mosaics – RDZ Photography

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

Architecture, Art, History, Transportation

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.

Welcome to Constitucion Station.

Buenos Aires – December 2019 – D Line Subway Art

Architecture, Art, History, Museum, Transportation

Christmas day morning is the perfect time to take photos of the massive amount of art in the Buenos Aires subway – the trains are running frequently but there are very few people on them, or in the stations.

This posting is not meant to be a catalog of all of the art as it would be far to extensive, rather to profile some of the best. The photos go in order from the furthest station out (Congresso de Tucaman) to the termination at Catedral. Many of the notes detailing the work came from a PDF/book published in 2017 by the city of Buenos Aires.

We start in the Congresso de Tucaman station with a large mural that is meant as a statement of freedom and independence, with a number of symbols including a condor which stands for the southern hemisphere and an eagle which stands for the northern hemisphere. This mural also represents sacred symbols and the idea that it is never too late to make dreams come true.

This mural, as well as a number of others, in the Jose Hernandez station is by Raúl Soldi. The works depict a bygone era of art and music.

The ticket level has a tribute to Lionel Messi, a legendary Argentine soccer player.

In the Palermo station are works from Milo Lockett, evoking childhood memories to provide a pleasant journey.

In the Plaza d’Italia station are three beautiful tile murals by Leonie Matthis de Villar. This one is depicting public ceremonies the chiefs used to carry out with the priest before entering the church.

The columns of the station are decorated by Marino Santa Maria, the mosaic artist we met in his studio a few weeks ago.

On the floor of the platform, protected by special resistant material, are scenes from the Port of Buenos Aires in the 1930s. It represents the Italian immigrant laborers of the day.

Many of the stations have these fantastic murals on tile. Completed by Rodolfo Franco, they were installed in the stations during their construction in the 1930s, depicting both historic and current (for 1930s) life across Argentina.

In the Pueyrredón station are a series of illustrations by Gustavo Reinoso showing the symbols of the city in a Pop Art style.

Further into town at the Facultad de Medicina we return to more of the Franco murals.

In the Callao station there are 8 large mosaics portraying German artists who learned their artwork was destroyed by the Nazi’s at the end of World War II. Completed by Remo Bianchedi, it is a tribute to the anguish those artists felt.

Knowing this now they seem cheapened by the large advertising nearby.

The Teatro Colon station has a far more modern art approach.

Also in the Teatro Colon station are representations of the Spanish conquistadors coming to Argentina, and the impact it had on the natives.

In this mural depicting 1835, gauchos are resting after the end of their journey, leaving their carts half-loaded. This image contains those goods that were part of the international trade that later Argentina into the breadbasket of the world.

We end at Catedral where the beloved Mafalda is lamenting the condition of the world.

Buenos Aires – December 2019 – An Argentine Legend Decorates His Street

Architecture, Art

This is Marino Santa Maria. He is an artist that has decorated his street in Buenos Aires for many years, bringing an amazing amount of color and character to the neighborhood.

His talent has gone much further than his street though, he has decorated, among other things, some Buenos Aires subway stations.

Words are not required – the street is amazing!

Houston – May 2019 – Smithers Park

Art

Smithers Park is an urban art oasis in southeast Houston. Named in honor of a couple folk art philanthropists, the park resides between a residential and commercial area, next to the legendary Houston folk art area known as the Orange Show.

The park has art from over 300 people, mostly self taught. The day we were there a few were working on their current projects.

The band shell was impressive, with an interior of mostly cut up road signs.

The mosaics are a collection of random materials.

All are very original in their design.

Bordering the entire length of one side of the park is a 400 foot long ‘Memory Wall’.

The surrounding neighborhood is predominately Latino, and as a tribute there is a ‘Day of the Day’ couple sitting at a table.

At first you think this is a small grass oasis, until you look closely and see the guitar neck in mosaic beyond it, and the grass is the body of the guitar.