BUENOS AIRES.- Malba is presenting M閤ico moderno. Vanguardia y revoluci髇, a broad panorama of the various modernist aesthetic projects that evolved in Mexico over the first half of the 20th century. Curated by Victoria Giraudo (Malba), Sharon Jazzan Dayan and Ariadna Pati駉 Guadarrama (Munal), the show features 170 works by more than 60 representative artists from this period, including Dr. Atl, Miguel Covarrubias, Saturnino Herr醤, Mar韆 Izquierdo, Frida Kahlo, Agust韓 Lazo, Diego Rivera, Jos Clemente Orozco, Antonio Ruiz “El Corcito,” David Alfaro Siqueiros, Remedios Varo and 羘gel Z醨raga, many of whom are being shown in Argentina for the first time, in an unprecedented offering.
The show's narrative of these artists' various themes, concerns and aesthetic investigations extends over four galleries, on both of the museum's main exhibition floors. The sections divide into “Cosmopolitan Modernity," "Social Revolution," "Popular Culture," and "Surrealist Experiments." Featured are works by the masters of muralism, the Estridentistas, the Contempor醤eos, Independent or maverick artists, the first women to take part in these movements—who can be considered proto-feminists—and the different surrealisms that arose in Mexico.
The show has been organized in collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Arte de M閤ico / INBA (MUNAL), as part of a cooperative institutional agreement established in 2015. Many of the works come from this museum, which has a unique wealth of four thousand pieces from five centuries of Mexican art history, pieces which makes this the most important public collection in all Mexico.
Outstanding among the pieces on display are the famous cubist paintings of Diego Rivera Paisaje zapatista (1915) and Retrato de Mart韓 Luis Guzm醤 (1915), which will be shown in the same room as Malba's Retrato de Ram髇 Gom閦 de la Serna (1915), as well as such seminal works by this artist as Retrato de Best Maugard (1913), Vendedora de Alcatraces (1943) and the monumental, nine-meter-long painting R韔 Juchit醤 (ca.1953-55). Also included are works such as David Alfaro Siqueiros's Retrato de Mar韆 As鷑solo (1935), his Autorretrato (el coronelazo) (1945) and Accidente en la mina (1931); Jos Clemente Orozco's El desmembrado (c醖aver) and Cabeza flechada (both from 1947); Dr. Atl's Erupci髇 de Paricut韓 (1943); Saturnino Herr醤's Nuestros dioses (1916); Antonio M. Ru韟's El sue駉 de la Malinche (1939) and 羘gel Z醨raga's La Bailarina desnuda (1907)—to name a few. Other important public and private collections have also lent works to the exhibition: the Museo de Arte Moderno de M閤ico, the Museo Carrillo Gil, the Fundaci髇 Blaisten, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, which, for the first time, is loaning out to a Latin American institution Diego Rivera's drawing Man at the Crossroads (1932) and Frida Kahlo's painting Fulang-Chang y yo (1937).
Also featured in this show are the key Mexican works from this period that are part of Malba's holdings. In addition, Verboam閞ica—a current display in the museum—provides a regional context for comparison, dialogue and reflection on theoretical debates about modern Latin American art in relation to cultural identity: the indigenous-issues, work, the city, geopolitics, among other themes.
Finally, the exhibition has also provided the perfect occasion to show Diego Rivera's Baile en Tehuantepec (1928), one of the artist's most important creations, a clear reference to the Mexican indigenous cultural tradition. Purchased by Eduardo F. Costantini in 2016, this monumental work is on display again in Latin America for the first time in thirty years.
