Museum of Art of El Salvador (MARTE)
El Salvador's principal art museum, with Salvadoran modern art and a Monday evening concert series.
MARTE opened in May 2003 on the Avenida de la Revolución in Colonia San Benito, beside the mosaic Monumento a la Revolución, and was established by a private non-profit association rather than the state. The building is arranged over three levels around a central stair, with a plaza and sculpture terrace outside. It brought together works that had previously been scattered among public offices and private hands, and it remains the country's main venue for surveys of Salvadoran painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking.
The semi-permanent display Trópico Telúrico traces how Salvadoran artists have constructed ideas of national identity, from nineteenth-century landscape through the social painting of the mid-twentieth century to work made during and after the civil war. Other rooms hold changing exhibitions, a library and a gallery for children. The museum runs Lunes Musicales, a long-standing Monday evening series of chamber concerts, recitals and opera screenings, together with monthly public talks and a documentary programme.
Highlights
- Trópico Telúrico, a survey of Salvadoran art and national identity
- Lunes Musicales, a weekly Monday evening concert series
- Changing exhibitions of Salvadoran and international art
- Sculpture plaza beside the Monumento a la Revolución mosaic
