: The James A. Michener Art Museum is presenting "Mexican Folk
Retablos: Images of Devotion," an exhibition highlighting
examples of this unique art form that flourished in rural areas
of Mexico during the Nineteenth Century. It will be on view April
17-July 11 in the Fred Beans Gallery.
The exhibition provides an insight into the faith and devotional
practices of the Mexican people and an art form that has
influenced such well-known figures as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera
and Jose Guadalupe Posada, among others.
The exhibition was organized by the Arizona Arts Commission and
curated by Gloria Fraser Giffords, an expert on retablos and the
author of many articles and books including Mexican Folk
Retablos, University of New Mexico Press, 1998. Giffords will
present a lecture at the museum on Sunday, April 18, from 3 to 4
pm.
Oil paintings of religious imagery on tinplate first appeared in
Mexico's rural central states during the Nineteenth Century.
Largely by anonymous artists, these small works known as
"retablos" - from the Latin retro-tabula or "behind the altar" -
were created by the thousands. Little is known about the
individuals who painted them, but what seems apparent from the
large numbers produced is that they were extremely popular and
that they were collected from the remote countryside, where they
were primarily the religious art of rural people.
Almost 50 years ago retablos began to be collected, mostly by
individuals in the United States who were fascinated by the
charming naiveté in many of the examples, as well as their strong
decorative qualities. The skills of the artists range from those
who appear to have had some formal training to those who were
guided by their instinctive sense of color, line and form.
Painted with an oil-based paint, the choice of tinplated iron
sheets as a substitute for canvas was most likely a fortuitous
choice in the beginning. Mexico's Independence from Spain in 1821
opened the nation up to free trade. Tinplate, produced in England
during the Nineteenth Century, was imported into Mexico in
enormous quantities as raw kitchen implements, lanterns and
candleholders, pipes and containers of all types. Coinciding with
the availability of an inexpensive and durable support was the
Nineteenth Century phenomena of a blossoming of popular art of
all different types. In particular, the creation of religious
imagery in rural areas began to flourish and artists in Mexico
began using small pieces of tinplate as the support for paintings
of saints.
Retablos cover a variety of subject matters, but by far the most
popular were those representing the Virgin Mary, in particular
Nuestra Senora, Refugio de Pecadores. Images of Jesus were also
popular, especially those of El Nino de Atocha. These two
particular images, along with several others, represent a
specific icon and are faithful reproductions of the prototype -
the only diversities are the skills or particular style of the
artist painting them.
The James A. Michener Art Museum is at 138 South Pine Street.
For information, 215-340-9800 or www.michener artmuseum.org.
