Anahuacalli

The Anahuacalli Museum in Mexico City, a pyramid-shaped building made of volcanic rock, was planned as the last home of Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo. Today it houses Rivera's extensive collection of pre-Columbian art. Unlike typical museum buildings, the building's galleries resemble religious or ceremonial spaces; the corridors create a dramatic and cavernous atmosphere. In 2022, the artist Robert Janitz, who recently moved from New York to Mexico City, was invited to exhibit his works in Anahuacalli. This catalog documents this extraordinary dialogue between pre-Hispanic and contemporary aesthetics. As an outsider, Janitz had the freedom to respond to what fascinated him about Anahuacalli: the colors, the textures, and the visionary architecture. Throughout the three floors of the museum, Janitz installed large-scale paintings on the walls, even on the ceiling and floor, to respond to Rivera's almost ubiquitous decorative program. His canvases, painted with tubular structures, sometimes reminiscent of hieroglyphics, of geometric shapes, were illuminated by spotlights on the heavy, dark stone walls in such a way that their luminosity created an almost metaphysical and spiritual atmosphere. Conceptually and stylistically, Anahuacalli seemed the perfect home for Janitz's extravagant colorful silhouettes.