“The ‘Soldaderas’ (Las soldaderas),” José Clemente Orozco, 1926, oil on canvas, 31 by 37 1/2 inches overall; Mexico, INBA, collection Museo de Arte Moderno. © 2017, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City.
DALLAS – The Dallas Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Mexican Secretariat of Culture, presents the exclusive US presentation of “México 1900-1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco and the Avant-Garde,” a sweeping survey featuring more than 200 works of painting, sculpture, photography, drawings and films that document the country’s artistic Renaissance during the first half of the Twentieth Century.
“The Bathers (Las bañistas),” Jorge González Camarena, 1937, oil on canvas, 39 by 49 ½ inches overall; Mexico, INBA, Museo Nacional de Arte Donation Fundación Manuel Arango A.C., 2011. © 2017, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City.
Curated by Agustín Arteaga, the museum’s new Eugene McDermott director, and the result of a combined cultural endeavor between Mexico and France, this major traveling exhibition showcases the work of titans of Mexican Modernism alongside that of lesser-known pioneers, including a number of rarely seen works by female artists, to reveal the history and development of modern Mexico and its cultural identity.
On view through July 16, “México 1900-1950” is enhanced in Dallas by the inclusion of key works from the museum’s own collection of Mexican art, encompassing more than 1,000 works that span across three millennia. The exhibition, which premiered in October 2016 at the Grand Palais in Paris, is organized by the Secretaría de Cultura/Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes/Museo Nacional de Arte, México (MUNAL) and the Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais (Rmn-GP) of France.
“The DMA has a rich history of collecting and presenting Mexican art, and this exhibition offers our visitors the opportunity to explore in-depth the diverse and vibrant voices that distinguish Mexican art during the first half of the Twentieth Century,” said Arteaga. “‘México 1900-1950’ showcases not only the greats of Mexican art, but also those who may have been eclipsed on the international level by names like Rivera and Kahlo. The exhibition helps broaden our understanding of what modern Mexican art means, and diversify the artistic narratives attributed to the country.”
Organized thematically and presented in both English and Spanish, the exhibition reveals how Mexican Twentieth Century art is both directly linked to the international avant-garde and distinguished by a singularity, forged in part by the upheaval and transformation caused by the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s.
The exhibition begins with an introduction to the Nineteenth Century imagery and traditions that predated and, in turn, inspired Mexican Modernism, and includes work produced by Mexican artists living and working in Paris at the turn of the century. It then examines how the Revolution helped cement both a new national identity and a visual culture in Mexico, as embodied most famously by the murals of Rivera, Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
The Dallas Museum of Art is at 1717 North Harwood. For further information, 214-922-1200 or www.dma.org.
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