Magic and Mexico
Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, and a lot more. Why this Mexican art exhibit is a must visit.
If the selfie queen Frida Kahlo (and her unibrow) is the only Mexican artist you know (and boxers do not count!), you have a hundred reasons to visit Ayala Museum and check out the “Mexico: Fantastic Identity 20th-Century Masterpieces” exhibit on view until Nov. 9. Get to know other Mexican artists who inspired our own art. After all, our cultural relationship with Mexico dates back during the Galleon Trade.
“The influence of Mexican art in shaping the visual vocabulary of Filipino artists in the 20th century cannot be denied,” says Ayala Foundation senior director for arts and culture Ma. Elizabeth Gustilo. “Our sensibilities are similar. The story of the modern art in the Philippines wouldn’t be complete without the influence of Diego Rivera, the Mexican muralist who was the inspiration of our National Artist Carlos “Botong” Francisco.”
The exhibit presented by FEMSA is one of the most important modern and contemporary Latin American art collections in the world. It has more than 1,200 art pieces in painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and installation. Its exhibit at Ayala Museum, however, only displays 60 art pieces that illustrate the shared ideas and visual vocabularies of Mexican and Filipino artists in the 20th century. What was the context back then? Revolution, poverty, slavery, and a longing for a national identity. The similarities, in terms of style and aesthetics, is in our penchant for festive, vibrant colors, but the difference, says Mexican Ambassador Julio Camarena Villaseñor, is the “tone” of our colors because the “lighting in the Philippines tends to be hazy.”
“During the 20th century, Mexico had strong European influence, but after the Mexican Revolution between 1910 and 1920, we formulated a new strong Mexican art,” says curator Emma Cecilia Garcia Krinsky. “And this is why the exhibit is called ‘Fantastic Identity’ because we already have a concept of fantasy even before the concept of surrealism reached Mexico,” she says.
A chunk of the presentation showcases Mexican’s magical realism art, a technique that integrates fantasy with reality. This genre travels across Mexican’s literature and films and everyday living. There’s book author Laura Esquivel and her novel-turned-movie Like Water for Chocolate. And though Colombian, the late author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his One Hundred Years of Solitude (among his many books) were inspired by surrealism. “In Mexico, surrealism runs through the streets. It comes from the reality of Latin America,” he says in his interview in the “Origins of Gabriel Marquez’s Magic Realism” published on The Atlantic website (www.theatlantic.com).
COLORS AND CULTURE What do Mexican and Filipino arts have in common? Look at Angel Zarraga’s September (left) and Antoino Ruiz’s El Corzo (right) and you’ll get the answer—colors, culture, and context.
The exhibit begins with Diego Rivera (again, the artist who influenced Botong Francisco) and his cubist painting Spain’s Great, which he completed during his stay in Europe. Painters Diego, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco are Mexico’s los tres grandes (the big three), whose works encouraged a national identity after the revolutionary movement. Their counterpart in the Philippines are Botong, Victorio Edades, and Galo Ocampo, the Triumvirate of Modern Art, who led the growth of mural paintings in the country.
Then, there are artists like Frida Kahlo (who married Diego Rivera), Antonio Ruiz, Agustin Lazo, Guillermo Meza, and Juan O’ Gorman, among others who composed fantasy related images. Frida’s My Dress Hangs There 1933 painting (oil and collage on masonite 45.4 x 50.5 cm) is the most buzzed about. Though there’s not a trace of a selfie, it’s still considered a self-portrait because her dress is in the painting.
Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, Emma says strong changes took place in Mexico. Young generation artists were able to travel to Europe after the end of the war, which enabled them to learn other expressions, which they took back with them to Mexico.
“Organized in seven chapters that review the key moments in the construction of the identity of a country under a revolution, the exhibit shows the nearly 80 years of artistic expressions of the most influential artists not only in Mexican art but also in Latin America,” says the curator.
Coca-Cola FEMSA Asia division human resources and corporate affairs director Juan Dominguez says that the exhibit “promotes greater awareness of the Mexican art movement by bringing heritage pieces including works made by Mexican National Artists to build a stronger bond with the Filipinos.”
By the end of this visit, you’ll realize there’s more to Mexican art than Frida Kahlo and her unibrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment