Las Artes de Mexico

LAS ARTES DE MEXICO
From the collection of the Gilcrease Museum

October 17, 2009 - January 3, 2010

The Rockwell Museum of Western Art was proud to present Las Artes de Mexico, from the collection of the Gilcrease Museum, scheduled October 21, 2009 through January 3, 2010. This traveling exhibition celebrated the rich and diverse artistic traditions of Mexico. Las Artes de Mexico examined over 3,500 years of art and culture, from the ancient worlds of the Mayans and Aztecs to the 20th Century works of Miguel Covarrubias and Diego Rivera.

While the nation of Mexico was formally established in 1821, Mexican culture remains a mosaic of traditions founded deep in antiquity. The art of the ancient Mexican world was often centered around ritual and performance. Las Artes de Mexico explores these traditions with artifacts from over a dozen Precolumbian cultures. Olmec, Mayan, Vera Cruz, and Toltec sculpture reveal scenes from an often-mysterious past. They reveal a world of ceremony and celebration, of ritual warfare and the veneration of the dead. The arts of ancient Mexico demonstrate a unique view of the world, notably captured in the ceramic effigy traditions of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Colima. These often poignant, often whimsical, portrayals display an approach to life that has continued in Mexican culture for centuries.

The founding of New Spain in the 1500s brought radical change to the indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica. Las Artes de Mexico examines these changes and merging traditions. Conquistador armor and Aztec blades highlight the initial conflict between worlds. For 300 years, Spanish influence remained a dominant force in Mexican life. Changes in Mexican culture and religion were profound and are strikingly revealed in colonial period retablos and bultos, the folk portraits and carvings of patron saints. While these paintings and sculpture are uniquely Mexican, they eloquently demonstrate the merging of Spanish culture, Catholic iconography, and native art.

Just as Spanish influences greatly impacted Mexican art and belief, many traditional practices continued through the colonial period as important forms of expression. Las Artes de Mexico examines these traditional arts with a number of works by traditional artists. The exhibition explores Mexican weaving and the role of the loom from antiquity, including Zapotec blankets that employ centuries old techniques and iconography.

The exhibition includes colorful costumes and glittering fabrics that have long been a mainstay of folk celebration. These festivals and dances are also examined through a collection of colorful dance masks from the folk artists of Guerrero. While these masks were often used in important feast days and religious celebrations, they were also used as a form of political satire to protest the sometimes-violent relationship between Europeans and indigenous Mexican peoples.

Social commentary became a hallmark of Mexican art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Las Artes de Mexico examines both painting and works on paper during the development of the modern Mexican state. The exhibition includes a number of works by Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, among the most influential of 20th Century Mexican artists. It includes works by the founders of the Taller de Grafica Popular (People's Print Workshop), Leopoldo Mendez, Raul Anguiano, and Alfredo Zalce. The exhibition includes the work of Carlos Merida whose Estampas del Popol Vuh employs images from ancient myth and Mexican history. The melding of Christian and pre-hispanic subject matter can be seen in Jose Chavez Morado's forboding Annunciation of the Nahuatal, while Miguel Covarrubias's moving Tehuana evokes emotions that transcend the bounds of culture toward a common humanity.

Las Artes de Mexico examines over three millenia of tradition and change across the broad spectrum of Mexican life. From the ancient to the contemporary, the arts of Mexico retain a unique perspective on the world. They resonate with both complexity and simplicity, with the old and the new. Las Artes de Mexico engages the viewer in a celebration of light and color. It is a celebration of the past and the present, a celebration of the human experience.

The showing here in Corning, NY is part of a national tour over a three and a half year period containing pottery, paintings, folk art and prints from the collection of the Gilcrease Museum. The tour was developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, an exhibition tour development company in Kansas City, Missouri.