the gm de mexico collection of drawings and graphic art

THE GM DE MEXICO COLLECTION
OF DRAWINGS AND GRAPHIC ART
THE GM DE MEXICO COLLECTION
OF DRAWINGS AND GRAPHIC ART
Project leader: Teresa Cid Cabello
Editorial Coordination: Sara Silva Montiel and Elizabeth Arreguín Vera
Curation: Pilar García González and Susana Pliego Quijano
Museography: Giacomo Castagnola and Erik López
Photos: Michel Zabé
www.gm.com.mx
[email protected]
Facebook: General Motors Mexico
Twitter: @GeneralMotorsMX
Exhibited at the Mexican Cultural Institute May-September 2016
www.instituteofmexicodc.org
[email protected]
Facebook: Mexican Cultural Institute DC
Twitter: @mexculturedc
Over the last 80 years, our country has maintained rapid economic, social and cultural development, inextricably linked to a number of stakeholders, including those in the private sector, which
are mostly represented by companies generating both economic and social well-being.
General Motors has been one of those actors present in the country’s history, bringing investment,
training, economic growth and job creation, in addition to contributing to the human factor through
its constant involvement in projects focused on social responsibility and activities promoting and
strengthening culture.
As part of these efforts, in the 1960s General Motors created a collection of drawings and etchings
with the primary aim of reuniting art forms that offered an overview of the cultural life of Mexico
City. The works belong to artists of the stature of Julio Ruelas, Francisco Goitia, José Clemente
Orozco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo and Carlos Mérida. The collection,
originally composed of 260 pieces, consists of works done through various techniques, including
ink, gouache, watercolor, pastel, graphite, charcoal and collage, as well as lithography and wood
and metal etching.
The GM collection features Diego Rivera’s drawing Carnaval de Huejotzingo, which was the sketch
for one of the four portable murals made by the artist to decorate the Hotel Reforma in the early thirties. It also includes José Clemente Orozco’s La borracha, a sketch of the Catarsis mural painted
specifically for the inauguration of the Palace of Fine Arts, and a sketch by David Alfaro Siqueiros
for his Nuestra imagen actual, a striking canvas done in 1943 that is today part of the collection of
the Museum of Modern Art.
The works of art integrated into the GM collection form a legacy that deserves to be placed before
the eyes of Mexican society, and we are certain you will appreciate the wealth of material we have
collected and preserved to this day.
That is why, as we celebrate the 80th anniversary of General Motors de Mexico, we have prepared
The General Motors de Mexico Collection of Drawings and Graphic Art exhibition with the production of important curators, who have managed to rescue the history of these works to design a true
taste of Mexican art in the twentieth century.
I invite you to enjoy this artistic compendium, that represents part of our national culture and
identity.
Ernesto M. Hernández
President and Managing Director
GM de Mexico, Central America and The Caribbean
The GM de Mexico Collection of Drawings and Graphic Art is a collaborative effort between the
Government of Mexico and a company that has been an active contributor to the economy and
culture of Mexico for more than eight decades. GM has witnessed and participated in the evolution
and construction of North America as the most competitive region in the world, characterized by
the complementarity of its markets and strength of its shared values. As this collection shows, GM’s
link with Mexico transcends the economic sphere and impacts our society through promotion,
recognition and preservation of Mexican art and cultural expressions.
Without the efforts of GM, the preservation of the works in this collection might never have taken
place and would most likely not be available for our viewing today. Thanks to the endeavor of its
team of curators we are able to share this artwork, and through it an important aspect of Mexico’s
cultural heritage and worldview.
This collection showcases the diversity and richness of Mexican art in the twentieth century. It
includes the works of masters of Mexican Muralism and many others who contributed to social
change and development in Mexico through art. The pieces in this exhibition, meticulously curated
and preserved, are outstanding examples of this legacy and comprehensive and balanced in their
diverse yet congruent selection.
The collection’s reach extends far beyond Mexico, penetrating into international artistic dialogues
and movements. Through its inclusion of Mexican and foreign-born artists alike, it articulates the
ways in which Mexican art has participated in global artistic narratives. While it tells of Mexico’s
journey toward modernization, it also tells the story of Mexico’s increasing internationalization and
contribution to global contemporary thought and expression.
It is the international importance of these pieces that makes the collection’s first exhibition outside
of Mexico so significant. The exhibit at the Mexican Cultural Institute, a building which itself embodies the intersection and dialogue between Mexico and the United States, represents a key step in
sharing Mexico’s culture and identity with the people of its closest neighbor and partner.
Through The GM de Mexico Collection of Drawings and Graphic Art, we celebrate the intellectual
and spiritual connection between Mexico and the multinational artistic view and interpretation of a
country whose history is intricately tied with the history of the United States.
Carlos Manuel Sada Solana
Ambassador of Mexico to the United States
The GM de Mexico Collection
of Drawings and Graphic Art
Pilar García González
Susana Pliego Quijano
Man is alone everywhere. But the solitude of the Mexican under the great stone
night of the high plateau that is still inhabited by insatiable gods, is very different
from that of the North American, who wanders in an abstract world of machines,
fellow citizens and moral precepts.1
Octavio Paz
In 1968, General Motors de Mexico (GMM) began the task of creating a collection of
Mexican art: La colección de dibujos y grabados de GM de Mexico. Originally consisting of 260 pieces, the collection was intended to demonstrate the distinct character of
Mexican art and the development of Mexican graphic arts in the 20th century. It was
an ambitious project that united pieces by prominent Mexican artists and other artistic
expressions of the time, all of which offered an overview of the cultural life of Mexico City
in the 1960s. In 1969, the magazine Texas Quarterly published Image of Mexico: the
General Motors de Mexico Collection of Mexican Graphic Art in two volumes. The piece,
which included works, photographs and biographies of artists2, was intended to serve
not only as a catalog of the collection but also as a reference of Mexican art in the early
20th century. The international publication was a bilingual edition with a foreword written
by the painter and critic Toby Joysmith and a second review by Thomas Brown, cultural
attaché of the US Embassy in Mexico and admirer of Mexican culture. The publication
also had the support of the US cultural diplomacy.
The collection was formed from 1968-69, when Richard Ehrlich was the President of
General Motors de Mexico (1968); it was the time of Vietnam, the assassination of Martin
Luther King Jr., the hippie movement, the student movement of October 2 in Mexico, as
well as the Olympics and the construction of the Ruta de la Amistad. The curator whom
1. Paz, Octavio. The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico. p. 19.Trans. Lysander Kemp. New York: Grove press, 1961. Print.
2. “Image of Mexico; the General Motors of Mexico Collection of Mexican Graphic Art”, Texas Quarterly, Vol. XII, Numbers 3-4, UT, Summer/Fall 1969, Editor:
Harry H. Ransom, special editor: Thomas Mabry Cranfill, photo editor : Hans Beacham [and others]. Artist names A-K appear in Image of Mexico I (No. 3);
names L-Z appear in Image of Mexico II (No. 4).
Ehrlich selected for the collection was Thomas Mabry Cranfill (1913-1995), an interesting figure in the cultural life of the 20th century. Ehrlich and Cranfill both shared a passion for art collecting and participated in the search to articulate a diverse collection.
Cranfill was selected as curator of works in part due to his experience as a professor of
English at the University of Texas at Austin and his participation in the 1965 creation of
another corporate collection called The Braniff International Airways Collection of South
American Art, documented in an edited volume by the university. Cranfill was also an
editor for Texas Quarterly, a well-known literature review founded in 1958, whose first
special volume, published in 1959, was dedicated to Mexican art and literature in the
mid-20th century. The volume contains a selection of photographs, poems, stories and
drawings that were later published in the book The Muse in Mexico: A Mid-Century
Miscellany.
His academic accomplishments, experience in Mexican and international culture, enlightened knowledge of both English and Spanish, as well as his work authoring several
publications and other US corporate collections, made Cranfill an ideal candidate to
carry out a project of this size.
Of great importance for the GMM project was the participation of photographer Hans
Beacham, author of The Architecture of Mexico: Yesterday and Today (edited by Architectural Book Publishing, New York, 1969). In his book, Beacham discovered the
beauty hidden in the details of Mexican architecture, revealing the refined eye that characterized him. Hans accompanied Cranfill on numerous lengthy trips to Mexico City,
where they inhabited a Porfiriana-style house on Calle de Puebla 303, Colonia Roma.
Beacham set up his photography studio on Calle Sevilla, a few blocks from his house;
it is likely that many of the high quality artist photographs that appeared in the original
collection of General Motors de Mexico were taken there. Artists like Francisco Goitia,
Remedios Varo, Antonio Ruiz, Dr. Atl, Adolfo Best Maugard, Leopoldo Méndez and Roberto Montenegro (already dead in 1969), were photographed by Beacham, who since
1960 had begun the task of portraying Mexico’s most renowned artists. Beacham was
also responsible for writing the biographical notes for the catalog of the GMM collection
published by Texas Quarterly.
For the construction of the General Motors de Mexico collection, Cranfill also had the
generous help of his friends, many of whom were essential in the development of Mexican art, and who assisted Cranfill in the selection of artists and placement of works.
He also had the cooperation of official institutions such as the Salón de la Plástica
Mexicana, the Galería de la Ciudad de México, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma
de México and the Organización para la Promoción Internacional de la Cultura of the
Secretariat of Foreign Affairs.
Another group of advisers was comprised of smaller and less consecrated private galleries and art patrons that followed the latest trends in Mexican art. Among them were
the Galería de Arte Mexicano, directed by Inés Amor, who was the link between public
and private artistic projects; the Galería de Antonio Souza; the Galería Edward Munch,
directed by Leopoldo Ayala; Alberto Misrachi from Galería Misrachi; Malu Block of the
Galería Juan Martín; the Pecanins sisters; and Carlos Eduardo Turón, among others.
Cranfill also integrated into the project people like Mathias Goeritz, who arrived to Mexico in 1949 as a teacher in Guadalajara and whose imprint on Mexican art is undeniable.
Other individuals who participated in the articulation of the GMM collection were Merle
Wachter, professor at the Universidad de las Américas and director of the Instituto Mexicano-Norteamericano de Relaciones Culturales; the critic Toby Joysmith, who managed
the cultural section in The News; John L. Brown, US cultural attaché in Mexico; as well
as Betty and Kirk Boyer, collectors of Mexican graphic arts.
Cranfill and his advisers visited many of the galleries in Mexico City exhibiting works
that exemplified the aesthetic eclecticism characteristic of the time, influenced by the
height of a new era of mass communication and marketing, as well as the economic
boom. The curator included artists who first caught his attention in the 1950s and who
managed to maintain relevance into the 1960s, when the General Motors de Mexico
Collection was formed. He positioned at the head of this group José Luis Cuevas, who,
according to the opinion of John L. Brown, was “the Mexican graphic artist who stands
out most in this period and fully deserves the high international acclaim he has acquired.”3 The collection hoped to achieve a national and international reach, thanks to
the diversity of its themes.
The GMM Collection is made up of works that use paper as their foundation, and, as
such, consists of graphic works and original drawings made through various techniques including the use of ink, gouache, watercolor, pastel, graphite, charcoal, collage
and a variety of stamping techniques, including wood and metal etching and lithog3. John L. Brown, “Ademán incauto,” Image of Mexico, Vol. I, p. 45.
raphy. The fact that the works are on paper emphasizes not only their character as
pieces of visual enjoyment, but also their use as a means of propaganda. According
to art historian Justino Fernández, one of the liveliest and most varied Mexican artistic
expressions is contemporary graphic work, which shows an aspect that is, on the one
hand, predominantly critical and dramatic and, secondly, lyrical and folkloric. “A lot of
fine works have been produced in lithography; of these and of the etched works, one
can not only appreciate the high technical achievement, but also gain a perception of
what the artists feel, think and imagine.”4 Quite possibly it was this notable art critic and
historian who provided the team of curators an initial list of Mexican artists to undertake
the search for works.
The collection begins, logically and chronologically, with an engraving by José Guadalupe Posada, considered the forefather of modern Mexican art, as well as the bridge
between the art of the 19th and 20th centuries, and ends with a lavish and audacious
selection of new and promising names from younger generations, achieving a mix of
emerging and established artists. The selection includes big names from the early 20th
century like Julio Ruelas and Francisco Goitia. It also includes “The Three Greats,”
muralists José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as
Rufino Tamayo and Carlos Mérida. Works of other internationally recognized artists are
presented in the collection as well, such as Gunter Gerszo, Federico Cantú, Ricardo
Martínez, Enrique Climent, Jesús Guerrero Galván and Antonio Rodríguez Luna.
The collection also includes the work of artists not born in Mexico who enriched the
cultural life of the country; some originating from Europe and other eastern countries,
including Mathias Goeritz, Waldemar Sjøndlaer, Leonora Carrington, Lucas Johnson,
Jacobo Glantz, Toby Joysmith, Jean Charlot, Kasuya Sakai and Milo Needles. As for its
geographical scope, the collection housed works of the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas and
Yucatán, in the south; Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Coahuila in the north, and cities like
Guadalajara, Morelia and San Miguel de Allende.
The print run of the publication of the work must have been more than 9,000 copies
of both volumes, as GM de Mexico alone received a batch of 4,500. To print Image of
Mexico, required that the drawings and etchings be sent to Austin, Texas to be photographed and analyzed. Although the collection was not yet announced, General Motors
de Mexico paid for a selection of works to be mounted in eight displays for a small ex4. Ibid., p. 38.
hibition that sought to highlight artistic harmony and dialogue between the works, either
through style, technique or theme.
The works were organized in eight displays that acted as thematic sections:
Display 1: Artists who exemplify the miniature in Mexico
Display 2: Works from the contemporary Mexican muralist movement of the 1920s,
1930s and 1940s, called social realism in the United States
Display 3: An agrarian and tropical Mexico, and portraits of children
Display 4: Menagerie and flora
Display 5: Faces and figures
Display 6: Mexican surrealism
Display 7: Influences in Mexican art: Spanish and French
Display 8: Abstraction, composition or construction
In order to create as complete a collection as possible, Austin included works on loan
from other artists from whom it was not possible to acquire pieces. Beacham leant
works by Trama, Maka Strauss and Lavalle. On their behalf, drawings by Iya Lady Abdy,
Tamiji Kitagawa, Agustín Lazo and Alfredo Ramos Martínez were loaned by various
private collections. The works of Jean Charlot, Frida Kahlo, Rafael Balderama, Castelar
Báez, Emilio Vera, Ignacio Aguirre, Isabel Villaseñor and José Julio Rodríguez come
from the permanent collection of the Center for Humanistic Research of the University
of Texas at Austin. Finally, the Galería Juan Martín facilitated the lending of a work by
Remedios Varo.
With the objective of publicizing the Collection within Mexico, a number of sites and
cities were explored as possible exhibition locations. Among them were the major capitals of various Mexican states, as well as spaces in cities along the border, la Casa de
la Cultura de Guadalajara, the Museo de Arte Moderno, some commercial galleries in
Mexico City, the Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Artes (MUCA) at the Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the Galería Aristos, also at UNAM. Helen
Escobedo, director of the MUCA and participating collection artist held talks with GMM;
however this option was rejected for its distance Mexico City’s downtown and the Zona
Rosa, which was the center of cultural life in the city at that time.
On September 30, 1971 a selection of works from the collection was inaugurated at the
Nabor Carrillo exhibition space of the Instituto Mexicano Norteamericano de Relaciones
Culturales (Hamburgo 115, Zona Rosa). The president of GM de Mexico, John F. Beck,
and his wife opened the exhibit, which was described as “a positive stimulus to our
artists of the brush, pen and chisel.”5 The exhibition was featured in broadcast media
as well as profiles by journalists and art critics. The collection was hailed as “one of the
richest in the country.”6 Cultural institutions expressed their interest in presenting the
collection in New York and other sites around the US as a way of strengthening trade
ties between the two countries. Moreover, in 1975, to celebrate forty years of business
in Mexico, General Motors de Mexico gifted the collection catalog to customers, distributors and friends.
In July of 1973, heavy rains caused the roof of the warehouse where the collection was
housed to collapse.7 Fortunately, no work was damaged. It may have been this fact that
sparked a renewed interest in the collection, its valuation and its fate. Around 1974,
GMM approached various art appraisers to explore the sale of the collection, always
wanting it to remain intact through any transfer of ownership. Offers from both Mexican
and American collectors arrived at the offices of GMM. The very same Thomas Cranfill
made an offer to the President of General Motors de Mexico, William G. Slocum Jr., to
acquire the collection; however, his request was rejected.8 Donating the work to the
Museo de Arte Moderno or to some other cultural institution within Mexico was also
considered. Jaime Saldívar, director of Club de Industriales, suggested gifting the collection to the Government of Mexico so that it might be exhibited throughout the country,
which would have resulted in “a very good advertising campaign to make the donation
known.”9 However, none of these efforts came to fruition and today the collection is still
part of General Motors de Mexico.
In 2010, the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) exhibited a selection of 51 pieces from
the collection under the title Vanguardia en papel. Figura y abstracción. Colección de
General Motors. In 2011 Arte gráfico Mexicano (1940-1972). La colección General Motors de Mexico was presented in the Centro Cultural Texcoco of the Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura, in collaboration with MUNAL, the institution that cared for the works until
2015, when they returned to the offices of GM de Mexico.
5. “Las artes plásticas y General Motors”, Autonoticias, October 23, 1971, GM de Mexico Archives.
6. “200 obras de arte en”, El Universal, October 30, 1971.
7. Report from A. Flores Muñoz to A. Gómez Obregón, July 30, 1973, GM de Mexico Archives.
8. Alberto Gómez Obregón, GM de Mexico Director of Public and Industrial Relations to Thomas Cranfill, September 18, 1975, GM de Mexico Archives.
9. Alberto Gómez Obregón to William G. Slocum Jr., July 31, 1974, GM de Mexico Archives.
2015: THE GENERAL MOTORS COLLECTION OF MEXICAN GRAPHIC ART CELEBRATED 80 YEARS OF GM IN MEXICO AND THE COMPANY’S COMMITMENT TO
THE COUNTRY AND ITS CULTURE
The exhibition that is currently displayed at the galleries of the Mexican Cultural Institute
in Washington DC is based on the framework of the 2015 exhibition in the offices of
GMM celebrating the 80th anniversary of the company in Mexico. Unlike former projects
that have showcased GM de Mexico’s collection, these selected works seek to reclaim
the meaning, objectives and the value that gave birth to the configuration of this collection of drawings and prints that were shaped by this company over 45 years ago. The
exhibited works highlight the original standard of their selection while simultaneously
documenting the development of Mexican art throughout the first 60 years of the 20th
century. The division into thematic sections retakes the original staging and seeks to
understand the context in which the collection was created, and is the reason why GM
de Mexico sought to display the artist portraits just as they were in that historic moment.
The exhibition is divided into five thematic sections: Works from the ‘20s, ‘30s, and
‘40s Contemporary to the Muralist Movement; The Persistence of the Past; Dreams,
Imagination, and Fantasy; Abstraction and Deconstruction; Psychedelic and Optic
Art.
1. WORKS FROM THE ‘20S, ‘30S, AND ‘40S CONTEMPORARY TO THE MURALIST
MOVEMENT
The first thematic core of the exhibition guides us through Mexican graphic arts of the
first decades of the 20th century. Without a doubt, this is the stage of Mexican art that
embraced the revolutionary narrative, enjoyed the greatest diffusion in the United States
and is most heavily represented in the collection. At the end of the armed phase of the
Mexican Revolution, José Vasconcelos pioneered muralism and invited the best artists
in the country to paint, on the walls of public buildings, images that would homogenize Mexicans around a common identity. The artists of the so-called Mexican artistic
renaissance (or social realism in the United States), among them “The Three Great
Ones” Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, are important
to the popularization of the nationalist imaginary of the post revolution. They depicted
the ideologies of the history of Mexico, its people, traditions and pastimes. The pretext
was to unify a heterogeneous country with common concepts. This was the way that the
different stereotypes that make up the Mexican nation on an ideological level were conformed. The concept of the mestizo and the people as the protagonists of history were
unifying concepts that manifested themselves in these post-revolutionary decades.
Several artists united to search for a more effective way to promote revolutionary ideology through manifestos and the creation of unions that aligned with the collective
efforts of the ‘20s. Painters, eager to respond to the nascent unions, and inspired by the
Russian revolution, created their own union in 1922; the Sindicato de Obreros Técnicos,
Pintores y Escultores (SOTPE), a group whose ideology was inspired by the Communist
Party. They signed their creed and published their manifesto as a collective combative
text in the pages of their informative media, the newspaper El Machete. The manifesto
heightens the creative collective, the socialization of art and the commitment of making
public art for the service of the Revolution, as well as demonstrating a longing to find a
national identity in the indigenous peoples of Mexico.
In 1934, after the dissolution of the SOTPE, the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR) was formed. Its sphere of influence extended beyond plastic arts to
literature, theatre, music, photography and science. Leopoldo Méndez, Luis Arenal,
Fernando Gamboa, Pablo O´Higgins, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Xavier Guerrero, José
Chávez Morado, Emilio Abreu, Alfredo Zalce, Santos Balmori, Clara Porcet, Dolores
Cueto and Ángel Bracho became part of this new group. The artists fought for freedom and opposed government censure of art. This body, with leftist tendencies, fought
against imperialism and fascism, supported the workers’ suffrage, unified progressive
intellectuals and believed in the social function of art. It sought to take literary and artistic work to the masses. Its instrument of propaganda was the Frente a Frente newspaper, illustrated by Pablo O’Higgins, among others.
The LEAR split and some of its members founded the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP)
in 1937, with a mission of making graphic works to benefit the masses. The messages
were political and social complaints, as well as support to unions and working-class
organizations. Using pamphlets and posters to transmit their propagandistic messages,
they hoped to combat imperialism, Nazism and war; art became militancy. Ultimately,
collective production gave Mexican printmaking a distinctive and renown appearance
internationally. Under the leadership of Leopoldo Méndez, works by Luis Arenal, Pablo
O’Higgins, José Chávez Morado, Alfredo Zalce, Ángel Bracho, Francisco Dosamantes,
Everardo Ramírez, Alberto Beltrán and Mariana Yampolski, among others, are proof of
the excellent quality that was attained. In the fall of 1939, when World War II broke out,
the TGP created several series of posters depicting war themes.
The work that was developed in the TGP’s creative space attracted foreign artists like
Bolivian Roberto Berdecio and Ecuadorian Galo Galecio. American artists, Elizabeth
Catlett, and especially Pablo O’Higgins, adopted Mexico as their homeland. The exchanges that occurred with these visitors echoed beyond Mexico.
In 1947, and akin to the Taller de Gráfica Popular, the Sociedad Mexicana de Grabadores was created with a goal of renewing printmaking techniques and restoring their
aesthetic value. They achieved an energetic expression through wood prints, devoid
of perspective and a profoundness in which action stands out. The graphic arts of the
beginning of the 20th century were used as elements of denunciation and critique, social and political alike, in newspapers and magazines. Due to their strong ideological
content and their great expressive simplicity, they were interwoven with the aspirations,
joys and fears of the working class. José Guadalupe Posada represents the authentic
manifestations of the working class national genius. Production and mass distribution
make the flyers, designed by Posada and Antonio Vanegas Arroyo’s press, an ideal
medium for the circulation of images. For these reasons, Posada’s prints are considered
the predecessors of Mexican Muralism and works by members of the Taller de Gráfica
Popular.
The GMM collection includes works by “The Three Greats” of Mexican muralism, the
first American vanguard and paradigm of national art. Diego Rivera’s Carnaval de Huejotzingo (Carnival of Huejotzingo) drawing is a sketch for one of the four portable murals created to decorate the Reforma Hotel located in the Zona Rosa of Mexico City.
Alberto J. Pani commissioned Diego Rivera to paint the murals in 1936, but due to their
political weight, they were stored until 1963 when they were moved to the Palacio de
Bellas Artes.
The four panels that constitute the pictorial cycle of the Hotel Reforma murals are:
La dictadura (The dictatorship), Danza de los Huichilobos (Dance of the Huichilobos),
México folklórico y turístico (Folkloric and touristic Mexico) and La Leyenda de Agustín
Lorenzo (The Legend of Agustín Lorenzo). The GMM collection’s drawing presents a
scene from this last section and captures the confrontation between the legendary 20th
century bandit and the French troops during the War of Intervention. According to the
legend, Agustín Lorenzo kidnapped his beloved Elena, daughter of the Chief Magistrate
of Huejotzingo. In the piece, the bandit arrives to the foot of the Municipal Palace in a
frenzied mix of music, fireworks and bullets and represented are the kidnapping, wedding, persecution, and liberation.
José Clemente Orozco’s work La borracha (The drunk), a sketch for the Catarsis (Catharsis) mural, was created deliberately for the opening of the Palace of Fine Arts in
1934 and is an allegory for war and a disintegration that speaks of social chaos, the
machine, prostitution and the struggle. Through fire, humankind can reach purification.
David Alfaro Siqueiros’ drawing is a sketch of Nuestra imagen actual (Our current image), a provoking canvas created in 1934 and now part of the Museo de Arte Moderno’s
collection. Siqueiros considered art a combat weapon against injustice. In this work, the
top of a male nude body exhibits a deformed face of stone, like many pre-Hispanic ruins. This is a figure that updates the pre-Hispanic past and integrates the devastation of
World War II; it is humanity, it is the people, and they are all one. The impressive empty
hands extend upward, emerging from the work with a prodigious perspective, perhaps
supplicating, perhaps showing the condition of emptiness, shortage, incomprehension,
pleading and solace.
Tropical and agrarian Mexico is part of the imaginary that was created in the ‘20s, ‘30s
and ‘40s, of an idyllic and exotic country that increased the value of indigenous cultures
and rural life, a faithful representation of otherness. The rift between the primitive and
the modern idealized a provincial life, distant from modernity, which shaped a rhetorical
construction and identity. This thematic section includes artists who paint the Mexican
people from an anthropological and sociological vantage point. Characters perform
everyday tasks like cleaning, storing grains in the barn, carrying firewood, harvesting
corn, building a well, and working in a mill - acts that could be considered humble and
primitive. Regardless, the focus is not poverty but the labor, the beauty and the dignity
of the people. Pieces like Río Palizada (Palizada River) by Alfredo Zalce, Cocinando
chicle (Cooking sap) by Adolfo Quinteros or Peón de albañil (The bricklayer’s mate) by
Pablo O’Higgins display this agrarian Mexico, rural and idealized, that remains on the
margins of the economically developed big cities.
Through celebrations and rituals, amusement and entertainment, the Mexican reclaimed
working-class traditions, creating a year marked by dates belonging to agricultural rituals, as well as Catholic holidays. Thus, the burning of Judas on Holy Saturday was
retaken as a tradition considered worthy of preservation. Other Spanish traditions also
permeated Mexican culture, like the great fondness for bull-fighting. Moreover, classical
music and couples’ visits to hotels were other examples of the many forms of entertainment embraced by the Mexican people. Lastly, ritual dances, some dedicated to the
Virgin of Guadalupe, reflect the religious syncretism that binds pre-Hispanic festivities
with Christian tradition to conceive singular celebrations. In her piece, Marta Palau is
inspired by the Olympic Games of 1968 and depicts an obstacle race with a figure that
appears to be extracted from a Greek vessel.
The Faces and figures section is realized in a diversity of styles, inspired by international vanguards and Mexican traditions alike. The plurality of the human being is manifested in a mosaic of heterogeneous representations that express a variety of ways to
inhabit the world. It includes nudes on occasion, as well as others performing activities
characteristic of all social classes - self-portraits, men, women and children display the
inner life of humankind. Whether it be a man crying in solitude, groups of prisoners or
nude women, all are presented next to portraits that appear to be extracted from an
ethnographic catalogue. Lines, stains and geometric figures trace human beings of
different races and conditions.
The coexistence of humankind with the animal kingdom in Of beasts, flora and landscape is exhibited in a series of compositions in which wild and domesticated animals
are depicted. Cows and fish that help feed humanity appear together with an owl done
in xylography and a cat, man’s domesticated companion. An affection for animals is
demonstrated with a touch of humor.
Painstaking details of plants, vegetables, leaves and flowers coexist with great compositions of national landscapes. Iconic places for Mexicans, like El árbol de la noch triste
(The tree of the sad night) and Tepoztlán, have a place next to Popocatépetl, protector
volcano of the Valley of Mexico and a symbol of national identity depicted grandiosely
by Dr. Atl. with a monochromatic stencil.
LA BORRACHA
(THE DRUNK)
José Clemente Orozco 1935 Medium: Etching
Measurements: 14.8 x 20 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Critical
NUESTRA IMAGEN ACTUAL
(OUR CURRENT IMAGE)
David Alfaro Siqueiros 1947 Medium: Lithograph
Measurements: 29.8 x 22.2 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Critical
PEÓN DE ALBAÑIL
(THE BRICKLAYER’S MATE)
Pablo O´Higgins 1947 Medium: Lithograph
Measurements: 38 x 29 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Tropical and agrarian Mexico
CARNAVAL DE HUEJOTZINGO
(CARNIVAL OF HUEJOTZINGO)
Diego Rivera Medium: Pencil
Measurements: 12.5 x 7.3 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Tropical and agrarian Mexico
ALEGORÍA
(ALLEGORY)
Brian Nissen 1966 Medium: Ink on paper
Measurements: 28.5 x 22.5 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Leisure and entertainment
CARRERA DE OBSTÁCULOS
(OBSTACLE COURSE)
Marta Palau 1968 Medium: Etching, 1/10
Measurements: 26.7 x 44 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Leisure and entertainment
CABEZA DE HARLEM
(HARLEM BUST)
Miguel Covarrubias
Medium: Ink on paper
Measurements: 25 x 18.5 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Faces and figures
CABEZA DE LUNA
(FACE OF THE MOON)
Rufino Tamayo
Medium: Lithograph
Measurements: 40 x 29.5 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Faces and figures
EL ABRAZO
(THE EMBRACE)
Emilio Amero
1944
Medium: Lithograph
Measurements: 28.3 x 34.3 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Faces and figures
POPOCATÉPETL
Dr. Atl
Medium: Stencil
Measurements: 21 x 25.4 cm
Section: The ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s
Subsection: Of beasts, flora and landscape
2. EVOCATIONS OF THE PAST
In the way that European modern art found the “other” of non-western cultures to be
exotic and natural, (as evidenced by the way African art was retaken by Pablo Picasso
and Polynesian art by Paul Gaugin) Mexican artists found in pre-Hispanic times a glorious past, the ancestral roots of the nation and a common origin among all Mexicans.
Myths and legends of ancient civilizations have remained relevant throughout the centuries and pervade modern Mexican culture
The imagery included in this thematic section is drawn from diverse traditions. Here we
find not only the pre-Hispanic and Spanish, but also elements of classic mythology and
other foundations of Western culture (an example of which is the boat, which in many
traditions is the vehicle responsible for carrying the dead to their final destination.)
The pre-Hispanic monumental architecture is the most remarkable vestige of the Mesoamerican cultures that inhabited Mexican soil before the arrival of the Spaniards and
is the most important testimony of their greatness, which has been preserved into the
present day. After centuries buried in the jungle, the pyramids acquired a privileged
place in the nationalist imaginary after the archaeological discoveries of the nineteenth
century.
Moreover, the imprint of classical Greek and Roman past on the Western world is undeniable. The achievements of these cultures, including their mythologies, have been
filled with characters that are metaphors and archetypes of human behavior, such as
Achilles and Patroclus, the minotaur, the winged characters, the faun or the three graces; all of which are represented in the collection of GMM.
Part of this mythical past is made reference to in “French and Spanish Influence.” From
the sixteenth century onward, the stamp of the Spanish conquest remained in the collective imagination of the nation. During the Porfiriato, France was considered as a
model both in the visual arts and architecture. In this way, images of the monarchy and
flashes of European culture have permeated Mexico in various ways. Europe has been
a leader and an aspiration that has manifested itself in various periods of Mexican history. The imprint left by the art of Velázquez, Goya, Picasso and Miró remains in the works
of Mexican artists. An obvious example is the work of Alberto Gironella, which engages
in a dialogue with Diego Velázquez’ Las Meninas, a paradigmatic work representing the
Spanish monarchy.
FIGURAS ALADAS
(WINGED FIGURES)
Juan Soriano
Medium: Etching
Measurements: 15 x 22.2 cm
Section: Evocations of the past
Subsection: Mythic past
BESTIARIO
(BESTIARY)
José Luis Cuevas
1968 Medium: Ink on paper
Measurements: 16.8 x 26.2 cm
Section: Evocations of the past
Subsection: French and Spanish influence
VIEJA CON MOÑO
(OLD WOMAN WITH BOW)
Rafael Coronel
1961
Medium: Charcoal and pastel
Measurements: 60 x 46.5 cm
Section: Evocations of the past
Subsection: French and Spanish influence
HOMBRE Y MUJER
(MAN AND WOMAN)
Gilberto Aceves Navarro
Medium: Ink and hematite
Measurements: 49 x 65 cm
Section: Evocations of the past
Subsection: French and Spanish influence
3. DREAMS, IMAGINATION, AND FANTASY
In the late 20th century, symbolism showed a patent turn-of-the-century disenchantment. Modernity and materialism had stolen from humanity its spirituality. The imprint of
the discovery of the unconscious and the interpretation of dreams studied by Sigmund
Freud validated an unaware and senseless reality. The dream world and the reality
that exists beyond that which the senses can identify broke into the visual arts first in
Europe and later through the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico. The piece by Julio Ruelas, draftsman and Symbolist painter and Professor at the Academy, shows a scorpion
woman hugging a character crucified with the text “Relentless” engraved on the base
of the cross. A few years later, the Surrealists took the symbolist creations as inspiration
and created compositions based on the world of dreams, imagination and fantasy. They
were liberated from the canonical art compositions and gave free rein to their creativity.
The compositions do not obey logic or reason and are fantastic creations of the wonderful world that seems to emerge from the inner life of the human being.
André Breton visited Mexico in 1938 and, along with Leon Trotsky and Diego Rivera,
launched the manifest “For an Independent Revolutionary Art.” The text is one that
reclaims for intellectual creation an anarchist regime of individual liberty. Breton’s visit
sparked a series of surrealist events that gave feedback to poets, writers and painters.
On January 17, 1940 an International Exhibition of Surrealism organized by the French
poet André Breton, the Austrian painter Wolfgang Paalen and the Peruvian poet César
Moro was inaugurated at the Galería de Arte Mexicano in Mexico City. The Surrealist
exhibition marked the beginning of an international interest in the artistic activities in
Mexico.
The collection helped to change the archetypes of a nationalist Mexico, a country able
to assimilate any foreign movement. Presenting a dialogue between productions from
distinct periods and latitudes, this exhibition for the first time overlapped the pre-Hispanic past and modern art, including primitive wooden totems that refer to ancient
myths. World War II made it so that Mexico was attributed as a land of peace and
freedom. The exhibition included Surrealists living in Europe and also some exiles like
Antonio Rodríguez Luna, Miguel Prieto, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. The
image that the exiles conceived of Mexico was clearly idealized as a surreal, unlikely,
exotic country – a paradise regained. Among Mexican artists in the movement were
Agustín Lazo and Juan Soriano. André Breton sent works from Paris to form an international chapter and, along with Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo,
participated in the surrealist movement until Breton gave his endorsement to integrate
Mexicans into international surrealism.
Stairs with no defined destination, fantastic images, fragments of bodies and plants
growing in the air are some of the elements that appear in these compositions that
transcend reality. María Izquierdo’s Autorretrato y sueño (Self-portrait and dream) includes cut trees, characters running and a self-portrait holding a head whose hair is
entangled to form tree trunks coming out of the window of a house, all of which come
together to form a composition with a strange vanishing point perspective. Meanwhile,
Leonora Carrington’s drawing represents an anthropomorphic boat in which a female
fish is mixed with the ship’s structure, part of her personal mythology. Mexican surrealism represented a breaking point with the nationalist figurative art and marked a new
direction of Mexican painting.
AUTORRETRATO Y SUEÑO
(SELF-PORTRAIT AND DREAM)
María Izquierdo
1947
Medium: Ink on paper
Measurements: 47.5 x 63.5 cm
Section: Dreams, imagination, and fantasy
4. ABSTRACTION AND DECONSTRUCTION
In the early twentieth century, the European avant-garde began to dismantle the pictorial space and analyze it as a flat two-dimensional surface in which compositions are
articulated through colors, lines and forms, separate from external references and without political pretensions. The artists fought for the autonomy of art and its universality.
Abstract art, highlighted in Soviet Supremacy and Parisian cubism, is liberated from
the figure to explore color and line. Because many Mexican artists traveled to the Old
Continent and lived with the European avant-garde they made an important mark on the
national artistic identity after returning to Mexico. They also joined the exiles who fled
Europe’s wars, thereby enriching the Mexican art scene.
Mexicanity was often seen as folk and superficial, made for tourists. The art historian
Luis Cardoza y Aragón defined the art of the muralists in his famous phrase: “The folk
painting of Mexico is not Mexican because it is not painting [...] The artist who in Mexico
seeks the essential thing is for a certain medium an outcast; for that medium if there is
no sarape and nopal, there is no art in Mexico.”10 In reaction to the Mexican School of
Painting, the pre-Hispanic past was considered an authentic and original Latin American art that conveyed the essence of Mexico and used the same abstract language
of modernism. The artists used geometrism to create an international abstract painting
style with Mexican coloring and distanced themselves from the ideological and politicized nationalist language to find an expression beyond the “cactus curtain,” a term
used by José Luis Cuevas to express the need for artists to move away from Mexican
revolutionary imagery. Gunther Gerzso, Juan Soriano, Manuel Felguérez, Alberto Gironella, Vicente Rojo, Roger von Gunten, José Luis Cuevas, Francisco Toledo, Lilia Carillo, Enrique Echeverría, Helen Escobedo, Vlady and Fernando García Ponce were all
artists who participated in a movement that has been called the “Ruptura.” According to
Teresa del Conde, “young independents or those dissatisfied with the late fifties and late
seventies did not feel bound by any dogma, nor did they proclaim themselves as the
vanguard or elite, they simply expressed themselves differently, creating the impression
that there was a rebounding wall, symbolized by the Mexican School.”11
10. “Ideas, frases y aforismos de Luis Cardoza y Aragón,” Revista de la Universidad, Mexico, summary, vol. XXXI, num. 7, March 1977, p. 7.
11. Teresa del Conde, A guided visit. A Brief History of Contemporary Mexican Art, Mexico, Plaza & Janes, p. 95.
HACIA ARRIBA
(UPWARD)
Vicente Rojo
1966 Medium: Ink on paper
Measurements: 40 x 30 cm
Section: Abstraction and deconstruction
COMPOSICIÓN
(COMPOSITION)
Manuel Felguérez
1967
Medium: Lithograph
Measurements: 45 x 39.5 cm
Section: Abstraction and deconstruction
5. PSYCHEDELIC AND OPTIC ART
Psychedelic art emerged in the sixties as a result of the hippie counterculture and as an
escape from the limits imposed on consciousness. The term “psychedelic” was coined
by British psychologist Humphry Osmond in 1957, meaning “manifestation of the soul.”
It is characterized by expression through psychotropic drugs, whose consumption
causes an alteration in the perception of the senses. In the visual arts, radial shapes,
spirals, repetitions, anti-gravitational expansions, fractal and kaleidoscopic patterns,
extreme depth of detail, mutation of objects, as well as the creation of highly contrasting
free and fantastic compositions pervade. In the General Motors Collection, we find outstanding examples of psychedelic art like Precisión (Precision) by Ricardo Regazzoni,
Mi jardín (My garden) by Vlady and Paisaje (Landscape) by Carlos Cantú. Each of the
compositions shows a personal way of accessing the subconscious universe.
For its part, the Op Art or Optical Art emerged in the late fifties in the United States as
a variation or interpretation of geometric abstraction. It uses scientific principles and
repetitive structures to create certain optical effects and seeks to create sensations of
movement. Op Art uses optical phenomena to produce abstract pictorial images and
create sensations of movement in two-dimensional surfaces. La vida (Life) by Crispín
Alcázar and Dos colores (Two colors) by Myra Landau are clear examples of the way in
which artists experimented with optical phenomena to create a variety of effects.
The GM de Mexico Collection of Drawings and Graphic Art offers a unique opportunity
to appreciate the development of the arts in Mexico through the 1970s. The intelligent
selection of works shows the company’s commitment to a project initiated by Richard
Ehrlich and embraced not only by Thomas Cranfill, but also by a group of advisers
whom both Ehrlich and Cranfill supported. The two characters were able to gauge the
relevance of the artistic movements of Mexico, the country in which they lived, and
express their admiration for the Mexican culture, evident in the dedication, time and
effort they invested to bring together this group of artwork. The collection exhibits a
little-known facet of the engagement of General Motors de Mexico with Mexican culture.
The same can be seen in the division of thematic sections and the selection of artists
and works, which were meticulously executed. The collection, without doubt, achieves
a vast exploration of the rich aspects of 20th century Mexican art.
DOS COLORES
(TWO COLORS)
Myra Landau
1965
Medium:
Etching, 6/10
Measurements:
40 x 27 cm
Section:
Psychedelic and optic art
PRECISIÓN
(PRECISION)
Ricardo Regazzoni
1968
Medium:
Ink on paper
Measurements:
15.5 x 22.5 cm
Section:
Psychedelic and optic art
LIST OF WORKS
LA DEFENSA DEL HONOR | José Guadalupe Posada
EL ABRAZO | Emilio Amero
LA BORRACHA | José Clemente Orozco
AMIGOS | Philip F. Bragar
NUESTRA IMAGEN ACTUAL | David Alfaro Siqueiros
JUCHITECA SENTADA | Celia Calderón de la Barca
EL DICTADOR | Juan O´Gorman
AGUADORA MAYA | Olga Costa
EL SOLDADO | Luis Arenal Bastar
MUJERES Y NIÑO | Francisco Zúñiga
LA LIBERTAD | José Reyes Meza
FIGURAS HERÓICAS | Ricardo Martínez De Hoyos
PRISIONEROS | Francisco Moreno Capdevila
DOLIENTES | Raúl Anguiano
Y CON LA CARREOLA SOMOS TRES | Milo Needles
LA SOMBRA | Carlos Orozco Romero
NIÑO FLOTANDO | Lucas Johnson
MUJER | Enrique Carbajal González “Sebastián”
COSCOMATES | Leopoldo Méndez
MUJER ASOLEÁNDOSE | Leonel Góngora
POR UNA CAUSA, O POR OTRA | Guillermo Barclay
REMEDIOS LA BELLA | Roger Von Gunten
HOMBRES LEVANTANDO UNA CHOZA | Ángel Bracho
REMINISCENCIA NO. 4 | Roberto Donis
RÍO PALIZADA | Alfredo Zalce
JUANITO PELLOYO | Pedro Preux
COCINANDO CHICLE | Adolfo Quinteros
CIERVO | Héctor Xavier
PEÓN DE ALBAÑIL | Pablo O´Higgins
ESTABLO | Mariano Paredes
CAMPESINOS | Xavier Guerrero
EL LEOPARDO | Vita Giorgi
LAVANDO | Francisco Dosamantes
EL REY DE LA MONTAÑA | Emilio Ortiz Sosa
TRAPICHE PRIMITIVO | Alberto Beltrán
LA ESPERA (GATO) | Alice Rahon
CARNAVAL DE HUEJOTZINGO | Diego Rivera
ELEFANTITO | Martha Adams
LOS JUDAS | Oscar Frías
POPOCATÉPETL | Dr. Atl
CABALLITO MÁGICO | José Chávez Morado
LA POZA, TEPOZTLÁN | Angelina Berloff
CARRERA DE OBSTÁCULOS | Marta Palau
MAGUEY | Carlos Alvarado Lang
ALEGORÍA | Brian Nissen
ÁRBOL DE LA NOCHE TRISTE | Jorge Tovar Santana
EL VIOLONCELLO | Gabriel Fernández Ledesma
PIÑANONA | Robert Maxwell
DAMA CON CELLO | Sergio Moyano
ESPORAS | Gildardo Uribe
REDONDEL | Mario Reyes
EXTRAÑO CARGAMENTO | Vita Castro
EL TORITO | Antonio Trejo Osorio
PERSONAJE | Fernando Castro Pacheco
CABEZA DE LUNA | Rufino Tamayo
FAUNO | José García Ocejo
ELLA Y LAS FLORES | Fernando Ramos Prida
PIRÁMIDES Y SERPIENTES | Manuel González Serrano
HOMBRE LLORANDO | Helen Bickham
FIGURAS ALADAS | Juan Soriano
MUJER TRISTE | Raúl Tovar
BESTIARIO | José Luis Cuevas
NIÑO NEGRO | Elizabeth Catlett
ROSTROS | Jacobo Glantz
CABEZA DE HARLEM | Miguel Covarrubias
EL REY Y LA REINA | Antonio Rodríguez Luna
RETRATO DE NIÑA | Roberto Berdecio
NIÑA BOGUIE | Francisco Corzas
VIEJA CON MOÑO | Rafael Coronel
MUJER EN LA NOCHE | Humberto Kubli
INFANTA DE VELÁZQUEZ | Alberto Gironella
HOMBRE Y MUJER | Gilberto Aceves Navarro
LA BODA | Juan Manuel de la Rosa
PESCADOR CON CARNADA | Francisco Toledo
AUTORRETRATO Y SUEÑO | María Izquierdo
CIMENTARE | Leonora Carrington
BÚHO PESCADOR | Mario Rangel Sánchez
LA TELEVISIÓN, CON UN PERSONAJE | Crescencio Víctor Estrada G.
COMPOSICIÓN | Carlos Mérida
STUPA NO. 2 | Kasuya Sakai
HACIA ARRIBA | Vicente Rojo
DISEÑO PARA UNA ESCULTURA | Olivier Seguín
ESTUDIO PARA UNA ESCULTURA | Helen Escobedo
LA CATEDRAL | Enrique Climent
DIBUJO ABSTRACTO | Enrique Echeverría
DIBUJO ABSTRACTO | Gabriel Ramírez
COMPOSICIÓN | Ricardo Rocha
COMPOSICIÓN | Lilia Carrillo
COMPOSICIÓN | Manuel Felguérez
ABSTRACCIÓN | Rodolfo Nieto Labastida
HOMENAJE A ALBERTO GIACOMETTI | Álvar Carrillo-Gil
SOBRE LA MESA | Liliana Porter
LABERINTO | Xavier Esqueda
NACIMIENTO A UN NUEVO MUNDO | Luis Ponce
DOS COLORES | Myra Landau
PRECISIÓN | Ricardo Regazzoni
LA VIDA | Crispín Alcázar Partida
MI JARDÍN | Vladimir (Vlady) Kibalchich Rusakov
PAISAJE | Carlos Cantú
TONDO NO.1: ESTUDIO PARA UN AMBIENTE-ESCULTURA CON LUCES | Arnold Belkin
GENERAL MOTORS DE MEXICO
S. DE. R.L. DE C.V.
The total or partial reproduction of this work,
by any means, is forbidden without express
permission from the right holders.