Museo Jose Luis Cuevas Review

There are more than 100 major museums in Mexico City, making it one of the most complex yet most rewarding big city destinations in the world. There's at least dozen big museums that can take you hours, if not full days, to tour --- but there are also countless smaller museums with tightly focused themes that can be fully experienced within only a couple hours. The Museo de Jose Luis Cuevas is one of these smaller museums.

I love the traditional Spanish architecture of the colonial home in which the museum is housed. It's just a few blocks walk from the Zocalo, making it an very easy side trip for anyone already sightseeing in the downtown area. It also means that, like just about everything in Mexico City's Centro area, everything you see and touch is about 400 - 500 years old. You'll walk up the cobblestone streets to the museum, which is easily identified by the enormous warped looking human heads outside.

Those sculptures give you a delicious first taste of what Jose Luis Cuevas is all about. He's a very modern artist with a style that's best compared to Spain's surrealist master, Salvador Dali. The comparison runs deeper than just first impression, as you'll find out as you tour the museum and see more of the Cuevas's work.

The museum isn't just focused on Cuevas though. It has a permanent collection of modern art by other artists, and they regularly do special exhibits that change fairly frequently.

One of the things I really enjoy about this museum is that, like almost every museum in Mexico, it opens its doors extra wide on Sunday with free admission and special events to encourage families and the less privileged classes to celebrate Mexican culture. I really wish American museums would do more of this public outreach because it really is a joy to walk into a Mexican museum on a Sunday and find dads spending time with their kids, exposing them to art, and enjoying music and relaxation. I stopped in at the Museo de Luis Cuevas on a Sunday afternoon and was delighted to find a free concert being performed in the museum's traditional open-air courtyard featuring baroque era instruments and folkloric elements from old Spain. Magnificent!

No matter what day of the week you visit Museo de Jose Luis Cuevas, it's an interesting excursion into the world of modern art with a classy, elegant setting in one of Mexico City's classic colonial era hacienda homes. Maybe not one of the city's biggest or glitziest museums, but definitely an example of how good the city's museums are even at a smaller scale.

Check it out!