beyond Frida y Diego

There is no doubt in my mind that Frida and Diego helped shed a lot of the positive cultural light under which Mexico found itself in the first half of the 1900's. From the ground up, they built a very favourable and transcendental perception regarding Mexican art. Nonetheless, there are some reservations to this story, considering Mexican art  acquired an extremely narrow-minded attitude through the prodigious years of the "Mexican School of Painting"* that took at least 4 decades to forgo. This  shake-up was  spearheaded by the young and rebellious artists** of the second half of that century (the "rupture" or "break" generation). 

The casualties of these kerfuffles, as it is the history of humanity, were our female artists. Unbelievably enough, Rivera being the main bully: A female muralist? Nonsense! And Frida somehow overshadowed them all. Why her? Come to think of it then, why not her?
The fact of the matter is that little is known regarding other very talented women artists residing in Mexico, both during the times of the hegemonic MSP* and the years when the status quo was challenged**.

The names of these womenfolk came to my attention in the late eighties and early nineties, when (thankfully) many exhibitions about their body of work could be found in Mexico City. The most memorable ones, personally: Maria Izquierdo, Leonora Carrington, Olga Costa, Lilia Carrillo, Irma Palacios, Remedios Varo, Elena Climent. The latter two my absolute favourites.

From left to right: 1-María Izquierdo, Naturaleza viva, oil on canvas, 1946. 2-Leonora Carrington (born in England), Self portrait, oil on canvas, ca. 1937-1938. 3-Olga Costa (born in Germany), La vendedora de frutas, oil on canvas, 1951.

From left to right: 1-Lilia Carrillo, Premonición, acrylic on canvas, 1970.  2-Irma Palacios, Delta, aquatint, 2003.

From left to right: 1-Remedios Varo (born in Spain), La creación de las aves, oil on masonite, 1958. 2-Elena Climent, Sotorefront, oil on linen, 1992.

Remedios Varo has always been at the top of my list, the master of all masters in my book. Recommendation: In the late 80's, Janet A. Kaplan authored a magnificent book on Remedios Varo, Unexpected Journeys, unfortunately out of print. A fascinating life, a mystifying artist.

The one lesson taken from this week's journey is that I truly don't know much about female or male Mexican artists born after 1980--peccato! Note to self: Learn more about contemporary Mexican art.

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*Escuela Mexicana de Pintura: Orozco, Siqueiros, Rivera, Covarrubias, Murillo (Dr. Atl), et al.

**Generación de la Ruptura: García Ponce, Cuevas, Felguérez, Gerzo, Mérida, Goeritz, Gironella, et al.