Galería de Arte Nacional | |
 Eastern façade of the gallery. | |
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| Established | May 1976 (1976-05) |
|---|---|
| Location | Caracas,Venezuela |
| Coordinates | 10°30′2″N66°54′9″W / 10.50056°N 66.90250°W /10.50056; -66.90250 |
| Type | Art museum |
TheNational Art Gallery (Galería de Arte Nacional;GAN) also known asGallery of National Art is located in the Plaza Morelos area ofCaracas,Venezuela.[1][2] The museum opened in May 1976. In 2009 it moved to a new building designed by Carlos Gómez de Llerena, Venezuela's largest museum building.[3]
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The museum was housed until 2009 in a neo-classical building nearLos Caobos Park.[4] The building was designed in 1935 for theFine Art Museum (Museo de Bellas Artes).[5] byCarlos Raul Villanueva, one of the best-known architects of Venezuela.[6] The facade incorporates reliefs byFrancisco Narváez, Venezuela's first modernist sculptor.[6]
In 2009 PresidentHugo Chávez inaugurated a new building for the National Art Gallery, allowing the Fine Art Museum to reoccupy its old building.
It features works of art by Venezuelan artists and artists such asCamille Pissarro who spent time in Venezuela. The collections span some five centuries from the colonial days featuring colonial Caracas and the period ofSimón Bolívar.[7]
The museum has been extolled as a “patriotic celebration of national artists” reminiscent Venezuelan society.[2]
There are more than 4,000 pieces in its eleven rooms (arranged in a circular layout), with international and Venezuelan art.[6][3] It has paintings of more than 40 Venezuelan artists.[5][8] The works include pre-Hispanic pieces, colonial-era paintings, sculptures, and Venezuelan works of modern art.
Temporary exhibitions exhibit artistic culture from pre-Hispanic times to the modern kinetic art.[5]Meyer Weismann of Caracas held his first solo exhibition of Venezuelan culture in this museum.[9] Other famous artists whose work is exhibited in the museum areArturo Michelena,Armando Reverón,Carlos Cruz-Diez,Pájaro andJesús Soto. The museum's most notable piece isMichelena’s 1896 painting ofFrancisco de Miranda in a Spanish jail,Miranda en La Carraca.[3]Its collection of modern sculpture includes works byAbigail Varela, Pedro Barreto, Colette Delozanne and Carlos Mendoza. An account of the collection may be found in the Spanish edition of the Wikipedia.
