Abstract 02 at MACAY

Editor's note: this exhibit was on display until March 30, 2009.

Abstract 02 of the ING heritage on display at the Yucatán Museum of Contemporary Art Ateneo (MACAY), unites a group of works created between 1961 and 1985, two decades which not only showcase the results of dynamic evolution of the first half of the 20th century, but also form the groundwork for present generations.

The selection of 39 works is a clear example of multiple variables, which bear witness to a particular sensitivity and talent of Mexican artists working in the field of geometry and abstraction.

At the same time, the exhibit represents a specific moment in national art, which allowed a universal identity to Mexican art through ideas and language of incomparable strength and quality.

The presentation is divided into four periods:

Transition and modernity: where the exhibited artists led the outstanding changes toward a new identity of Mexican art, and the majority were linked to the Gallery of Mexican art, such as: Roberto Montenegro, Carlos Merida, Miguel Covarrubias, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Carlos Orozco Romero and Jesús "Chucho" Reyes Ferreira.

From modernity to abstraction: period in which the future of abstraction in Mexico is clearly discerned. Artists such as Cordelia Urueta, Pedro and Rafael Coronel, Francisco Moreno Capdevilla and Chucho Reyes marked, in a gentle yet definite way, the culmination of the incessant "pioneerism" which characterizes the eternal transition and entry of Mexico to modernity.

Rupture: phenomenon or movement which unites in Mexico such artists as Gilberto Aceves Navarro, Fernando García Ponce, Vicente Rojo, Manuel Felguerez, Arnaldo Coen, Luis López Loza, Pedro Friedeberg and Ricardo Regazzoni.

Contemporary: where the "groups" would be the next phenomenon of the artistic organization emanating primarily from the National School of Plastic Arts of UNAM. The groups were created as anonymous collectives in order to establish a link between artists and civil society with the intention of creating a means for political dissidence. In this selection we see Sebastián, Manuel Marín, Gabriel Macotela and Susana Sierra.

The exhibit is on display until March 30, 2009. Entrance is free. www.macay.org