National Museum of Contemporary Ceramics Reopened in Havana

National Museum of Contemporary Ceramics Reopened in Havana

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 28 (acn) After five years of being closed to the
public, the National Museum of Contemporary Ceramics was reopened after
being moved from the Castillo de la Fuerza fortress to its new venue of
Casa Aguilera, in Old Havana.
Cuban News Agency

The Museum's director Alejandro G. Alonso told ACN that due to the
current characteristics of the building the collection has a new
museological conception, there are new showcases and the walls can be
used to exhibit the pieces.

Among the novelties, the director said one of the halls will be used to
display pots from La abstracción exhibition which shows the history of
ceramics since it first appeared in Cuba by the late 1940s through the
present. The pieces on display are changed every three months, said the
director.

G. Alonso said the museum has around 750 pieces, and the collection is
constantly growing as the institution counts on a fund allocated by the
Office of the Historian of Havana which allows it to purchase more works.

It also counts on artists who donate their pieces to the museum or lend
them for exhibition.

A set of informative panels complement the praise-worthy chronological
collection that includes works by front-runners of this artistic
expression, among them Juan Miguel Rodriguez, Marta Arjona and Mirta
García Bush and by other figures of Cuban art like Amelia Pelaez, Sandu
Darie, Rene Portocarrero, Wifredo Lam and Domingo Ravenet.

Other attractions of the institution is an interactive program providing
information about the pieces available to visitors and an arrangement of
flowerpots in the central patio which has an original humorous touch.

Pieces that stand out for its imaginative and surprising artistic
solutions or for its fine techniques such as the Japanese raku ware, a
type of pottery traditionally used in tea ceremonies, make a visit to
the museum a must.

On the other hand Casa Aguilera shows a Mudejar architecture from the
17th and 18th centuries."

http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2010/1028National-Museum-of-Contemporary-Ceramics-Reopened-in-Havana.htm