El Museo de Arte Americano

On page 252 of your textbook, you read about the Museo del Prado. This famous museum in Madrid houses the world's greatest collection of Spanish paintings, in addition to hundreds of foreign masterpieces. There you can see works by Spanish artists such as Goya, Velásquez, El Greco, as well as exhibits of other artists such as Rafael and Rubins. In this activity, we'll look at some more Hispanic works of art, but from an Uruguayan perspective. Let's surf the net and visit the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, located in Montevideo, Uruguay.

1. When you arrive at the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales Web site, click on Artistas. This will take you to a list of important Uruguayan artists. Some names in the list are hyperlinked to a Web page that gives the artist's biographical information and shows several of the artist's paintings.
   
   Your task in this activity is to take a virtual tour through the museum. You must gather the following pieces of information about four different Uruguayan artists:
   
   
   1. the artist's name
   2. the dates of the artist's birth (nacimiento) and death (muerte)
   3. the names of the two works (obras) that you like the best
   4. the dates of these two works
   
   Use the information you find to complete the following tables:
   
   

   Nombre del artista 1:
   Fechas (nacimiento y muerte):
   Obra 1: Fecha:
   Obra 2: Fecha:

   
   

   Nombre del artista 2:
   Fechas (nacimiento y muerte):
   Obra 1: Fecha:
   Obra 2: Fecha:

   
   

   Nombre del artista 3:
   Fechas (nacimiento y muerte):
   Obra 1: Fecha:
   Obra 2: Fecha:

   
   

   Nombre del artista 4:
   Fechas (nacimiento y muerte):
   Obra 1: Fecha:
   Obra 2: Fecha:

   
   
2. Now let's do a survey to find out who your class chooses as the most popular Uruguayan artist. First, decide which of the four artists you like the best. Also, decide which work of art you like the best. Enter this information in the spaces below:
   
   

   Mi artista favorito del Uruguay
   A mí me gustan más las obras de
   En particular, me gusta más la obra que se llama

   
   How do your preferences compare with those of your classmates? Interview several classmates to find out their favorite artist and work. You may follow the model below:
   
   Estudiante A: ¿Quién es tu artista favorito del Uruguay?
   
   Estudiante B: A mí me gustan más las obras de…
   
   Estudiante A: ¿Cuál de sus obras te gusta más?
   
   Estudiante B: Me gusta más la obra que se llama…
   
   Now that you have conducted the survey, who is the class' favorite Uruguayan artist? And the most popular work of art? Are these the same as the ones you picked?