It’s a question the philosophers ask: What is art?
It seems to me that, whatever you say about art, the notion of collecting must be a part of it. Making a grocery list is one thing. But choosing things that are meaningful to you and collecting them in memory is something else.
I suspect that process — the choosing, selecting and collecting — is the first turn we make when we make art. Artists make things — including paintings, poems and short stories — from details they collect in memory.
I went down a rabbit hole after reading a newspaper article about Museo Anahacalli, which holds Diego Rivera’s collection of ancient art. Rivera collected more than 50,000 pieces from Mexico’s many indigenous cultures.
In making his collection public, Rivera said: “I am returning to the people what I was able to rescue from the artistic heritage of their ancestors.”
It seems to me that statement might apply to almost any work of art, perhaps especially to works in the literary arts.
• Source: Kevin Aragón, “¿Cómo es y dónde visitar la colección de arte prehispánico de Diego Rivera?”; El Sol de Mexico, 15 de Julio de 2025.
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