Alfredo Guati Rojo National Watercolor Museum

The museum and the modern history of watercolor in Mexico is the work of artist Alfredo Guati Rojo.

After graduation, he decided to teach short courses for those with inclination but not the means for a formal art education.

[1] In the 1940s and 1950s, watercolor began to be recognized as a technique with its own particular qualities with artists such as Ricardo Sierra, Carmen Jimenez Labora and Luis G. Serrano dedicated to it.

[1][3] By 1977, they had amassed a collection of 300 watercolors, and approached the Secretariat of Public Education with the idea of creating a more formal museum if the agency would provide a site.

[1] The museum was formally established at the Colonia Roma site, with Guati Roja as first director, but also providing much of the needed money from his own funds, along with the initial 300 pieces.

In 1987, the city government bought the house on Salvador Novo Street in Coyoacan, the present site, and donated it to the watercolor museum.

He not only provided much of the funding, but his popularity helped to promote the museum along with Mexican watercolor painting in general.

His funeral was held at the museum with his ashes on display under the work called El circo de la vida ("The circus of life").

The permanent collection is in the main house, which is surrounded by gardens, a temporary exhibit hall, a café, and an auditorium.

The seven rooms are arranged by chronological order beginning from the pre-Hispanic period until the present day with both Mexican and international watercolor art.

[1] Behind the main house is the Berta Pietrasanta Temporary Exhibition Hall, which holds shows of mostly watercolor works by both Mexican and international artists.

[1] Associated with the museum, but legally separate is the Sociedad Mexicana de Acuarelistas (Mexican Society of Watercolor Artists).

This society was established in 1964 by Guati Rojo with twelve other original members: Gustavo Alanís, Edgardo Coghlan, Manuel Arrieta, Aguirre Tinoco, Jesús Ochoa, Teresa Miranda, Cristina Romero, Luis Canales, Rodolfo Vankurzyn, Carlos Sommer, Angel Mauro Rodríguez and Joaquín Martínez Navarrete.