Soumaya vs. Jumex
By Cynthia Jinich
Two of Mexico City’s most important museums in the current time are built one in front of the other, “Museo Soumaya” and “Museo Jumex”; but the fact that they are both in the street Blvd. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is the only thing these two influential museums have in common. Leaving aside their different architecture styles and owners, the main thing that sets them apart from each other is the art they have showcased for their public.
The Soumaya Museum contains thousands of pieces from Carlos Slim´s private collection in a permanent exhibition and only occasionally has temporary exhibitions; all these pieces from his private collection are classical art pieces, that means paintings and sculptures, and the collection also includes some historical artifacts. These pieces are divided into five different halls, where they are distributed regarding different central topics, not necessarily regarding any chronological order.
It is impressive how the museum has pieces from a grand number of renowned artists such as Picasso, Rubens, Da Vinci, El Greco, Van Gogh, Monet, Cézanne, Renoir y Matisse.
You can spend hours inside of the museum and not see everything inside, mainly because of the weird way in which most of the sculptures are placed, that makes the public not aware of what they have already seen given the fact that there is no path to follow; but also because of the huge amount of art and the time each piece needs to be fully analyzed and deserves to be stared at.
On the opposite side of the street, the Jumex Museum stands, the pieces they exhibit, not classical AT ALL; the museum’s art style is completely contemporary. This museum also shows pieces from a private collection, Eugenio López Alonso´s. With exhibits that change every so often, the Jumex collection uses contemporary pieces from different artists, made out of completely different materials with techniques completely out of the ordinary, to transmit different ideas. Currently, their exhibit called “5 Constellations” is about femininity and how it is understood and seen nowadays. The pieces shown tend from photographs to paintings, to sculptures and to things that can’t actually be categorized, and you can see every single piece because of the size of the halls and the flow the museum has on its own. However, if you do not have a guide, understanding every single piece will be a difficult task, given the fact that most of the pieces are conceptual and data sheets with explanations are basically non-existent. so you will either leave the museum thinking you understood nothing, or with an understanding completely opposite from what each artist was trying to express, yet, maybe that is part of what their goal is by not handing the explanations directly to you.
Mexico City is one of the cities with the most museums in the world, around 170 to be precise, both the Jumex Museum and the Soumaya Museums are must-sees and are really influential right now, however they have nothing in common other than the fact that if you haven’t visited them, what are you waiting for? But definitely don’t expect to see anything similar between their exhibitions, if you decide to visit them both in one day, be prepared to have two completely different experiences that will definitely fill your artistic souls.
