Description of the attraction
The Museum of Art of Lima (MALI) is one of the leading museums in Peru. It is located on Paseo Colon Avenue, opposite the Museum of Italian Art, in the Kercado de Lima area. Its total exhibition area is 4500 sq. M, including permanent and temporary exhibition halls.
The museum was opened in 1959 at the initiative of a group of patrons. This civic association was formed in 1954 to promote the development of contemporary art and culture in Peru. The capital's mayor's office gave them the building of the Exhibition Palace, built for an international exhibition in 1872 on the territory of the Expo Park. After the exhibition, the palace became the headquarters of the country's Fine Arts Society. Before the invasion of Chilean troops, the building was used as a field hospital, and then it was used as a barracks for Chilean troops until 1883, when it was almost completely looted and destroyed.
The slightly restored building in 1905 opened its doors to the National Museum of Archeology, Anthropology and History. Also within its walls were the Ministry of Development of Peru, the Chamber of Deputies, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Electoral Court and, finally, the Metropolitan City Hall of Lima. Over the years, the building has been restored several times. In March 1956, it was decided to carry out another reconstruction of the palace under the guidance of the Peruvian architects Hector Velarde and José García Brice and with the assistance of funding from France.
The first exhibition in the restored palace building was held in 1957 under the auspices of French culture and industry. In 1961, after the opening of the Museum of Art, the President of Peru donated a collection to the museum, which his brother, the historian, philosopher and lawyer Javier Prado and Ugarteche, began to collect.
The permanent exhibition of the museum invites its visitors to explore nine exhibition halls with exhibits from the pre-Columbian period to the present. The exhibition includes works of art from the culture of the Incas Moche, Nazca, Vicus. This collection consists of ceramics, textiles, and gold and silver items that have been found throughout Peru. You can also see the works of Peruvian artists of the 19th century: Jose Gil de Castro, Ignacio Merino, Francisco Laso and Luis Montero, representing paintings of a historical nature, reflecting the Peruvian reality of those years.
The 20th century exhibition hall includes paintings by Peruvian artists such as Teofilo Castillo, Jose Sabogal, Mario Urtega Alvarado and Ricardo Grau, paintings by students of the National School of Fine Arts, and the autochthonous movement that flourished in the early decades of the 20th century. The Contemporary Art Hall includes works of art dating back to 1940, featuring Peruvian artists Fernando de Zislo, Gerardo Chávez and others, showcasing the artistic trends of recent decades in Peru in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Since 1986, the Lima Art Museum has opened a library of books on art, architecture, crafts, photography and museology. Currently, the library has over 10,000 volumes, 620 titles of Peruvian and foreign magazines, a large collection of slides, videos and other multimedia publications.
Since 1996, the Archives of Peruvian Art (AAP) has been operating in the museum building. To date, it contains data on 2,500 Peruvian artists and 500 thematic portfolios of artistic and cultural activities at the national level. The museum also hosts courses and workshops for the general public. The Art Museum also offers the possibility of professional training for teachers in the field of art.
