Earlier this month on la Noche de los Museos I had the chance to go inside the Casa Fernández Blanco (not to be confused with the building that is the Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernández Blanco, which is in an entirely different place that also is well worth visiting). The Casa is located at Hipólito Yrigoyen 1420, just behind the wonderful La Inmobiliaria building on Av de Mayo.
From the exterior the casa Fernández Blanco doesn’t look much different than most of the other buildings on the street. Indeed, it’s easy to forget that this street, formerly named Victoria, was for a time one of the major streets in the city. That was before Av de Mayo was constructed. Now, it’s very easy to forget about this street nestled behind the beautiful buildings of Av de Mayo.
In 1880 Isaac Fernández Blanco brought this house, which was adjacent to the home of his parents. The old house originally had a colonial structure but after Fernández Blanco returned from Paris in 1901 he decide to renovate his home along the lines of everything else that was happening in Buenos Aires. Since he had quite a bit of money, Fernández Blanco hired Alejandro Christophersen who was one of the city’s outstanding architects.
The original Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano was established in this house before it was later moved to its current location in Palacio Noel on Suipacha.
Throughout the twentieth century Casa Fernández Blanco served various purposes, businesses and administrative uses. Only a few years ago was the house acquired by the city. Restoration is still underway. It was quite remarkable to see some of the rooms that had not yet been restored in contrast to the splendid rooms that are finished.
I’ve never been much interested in reading literature from the perspective of how characters either exercise or are subjected to power in a story’s context. It’s just a little too intense literary study for me but it is an accepted form of scholarship. Yet, the theme of struggle is a key element in life and society. Earlier this year the University of Texas Press issued a book on Women and Power in Argentine Literature: Stories, Interviews, and Critical Essays.
I’ve not actually seen the book and I assume it’s the that type of thing one mostly will find in university libraries but the introduction is available online and provides an overview that is worth reading. Interviews with authors always have the potential for revealing fascinating insights.
The topic of women and power is as complex and diverse as it is fascinating, particularly in a society like Argentina’s, where women are expected to be strong and intelligent, to pursue a career and at the same time be feminine, domestic, and maternal. My observation, after years of research and reflection, is that the women writers of Argentina have excelled in mirroring the many faces of women vis-à-vis power because they have been driven by the desire to understand themselves and their place within the family, the workplace, and society, much like women writers anywhere else. Yet, what makes the case of Argentine women writers unique is a certain ethos of being Argentine that generates a paradoxical self-questioning.
At some point, whenever I get a chance to actually find a copy of this book, I’ll get around to reading it.
Two years ago I wrote a post about Maurycy Minkowski, a Polish-Jewish artist whose life came to a tragic end shortly after arriving in Buenos Aires. Earlier this month I finally had a chance to see some actual paintings by Minkowski at the Jewish Museum at Libertad 769.
This is not a very good photograph. As I was taking it I could feel the presence of the guy coming up behind me to tell me not to take photos. Anyway, I just love this painting, the expressiveness of the faces.
