Macay Museum Cuevas Exhibit and More

Contemporary art museum MACAY opens its seasonal exhibits with the presence of José Luis Cuevas, one of the main figures of the “Rupture” generation as well as one of the most outstanding representatives of “Neofigurativism”. At the same time, there are ten other exhibits by national and international artists.

The new cycle features the exhibit “The Recent World of José Luis Cuevas: Letters, Paintings and Sculpture, where for the first time, 10 letters he wrote to his wife Beatriz del Carmen are shown, for a total of 41 works. The missives are accompanied by paintings and sculptures; the large scale works can be seen in the Pasaje Revolución beside the MACAY.

When speaking of José Luis Cuevas, many people think of his peculiar nature, his personality and his very definite ways of being and of working. The hallmarks of his creativity and his polemic nature result in a highly visible combination in the Mexican and international world of art.

So what does the exhibit of this Mexican artist consist of? This living representative of the figurative branch which emerged from the “rupture” generation? On this occasion, under the title “The recent world of José Luis Cuevas. Letters, paintings and sculpture”, he has broght a generous collection of works, which occupy parts of the exhibit rooms of the Museo MACAY as well as its Pasaje Revolución, where his large sculptures are displayed under the open sky. There, this heir of the XXI Century neofiguration, in which artists such as Francis Bacon participate, confirms his commitment with painting and sculpture, his clean technique and his recurring autobiographical themes.

For example, in Salas 11 and 11B of MACAY, the “Letters to Beatriz” are displayed, and the acrylic or mixed technique paintings on fabric or paper. In general, his work features the now accustomed monochromatic colors of his palette and his energetic, disoriented characters. His anatomic analysis exhibits a fragmentation of forms as if each member and each body could cut themselves into many pieces. The letters to Beatriz contain textual insertions. In one, dated May 9, 2009, the inserted missive says “My beloved Beatriz del Carmen, at the last minute we canceled our trip to Bogotá, because of the problem of the worldwide flu epidemic and we are very sorry…” And there are 200 more like this, just a selection of which is exhibited in the MACAY.

The “recent work” of José Luis Cuevas also extends into the realm of sculpture, through various medium-sized pieces situated in the MACAY salons, as well as the large format pieces which are outside on the Pasaje Revolución. There the enormous bronze heads, the bodies of unsettling morphology, the convulsive and tense structures - more intense and energetic than the pictorial collection – and less intimate – convene the spectators and passers-by and surely awaken their imagination. In these sculptures there is also the fingerprint of a complete José Luis Cuevas, attached to the eternal languages (bronze in this case, as can also be seen in the acrylic paintings or the drawings) and clearly identified with the XX Century in which he was born and lived. From José Luis Cuevas there will be more to come. That is what he states at almost 76 years of age. “I cannot title my exhibition ‘The last works of Cuevas’ because I am not finished yet and I cannot know which will be the last work. So, ‘recent work’ is more precise, and I am not lying,” he said.

José Luis Cuevas: “Enfant terrible” of the generation of artists who saw him grow, painter of what has been called “gestual ferocity”, both figurative and incisive.

At the same time as Cuevas, another 10 exhibits are open. Two Columbians: Carlos Torres de Bogotá and Diego Montoya de Roldanillo, present abstract painting with the works titled “Sensual Geometry and Links of Sound”, with a total of 14 and 19 works respectively.

Also of pure abstract art, but each in its own style and esthetic, are the Mexican artists Jesús Araujo and Manuel González, showing 22 and 34 works in the exhibits “The Reality is not on the Surface” and “The Scent of the Guayaba”, respectively, whose titles take us precisely to that state where anything is possible according to the observer´s perception.

Photographer Araceli Herrera reflects on the precarious situation lived by the inhabitants of the communities of Guerrero, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Michoacán and Hidalgo, in her documentary work “Original Peoples of Mexico: 500 Years of Oppression and Resistance”, with 24 images.

Salvador Luna, with his work “Circle of Identities” invites us to reflect on cultural diversity, through a chain link collar, about the life in the P´urhépecha communities, representing this culture with pieces produced with artistic techniques, styles, and icons.

With two completely different visions and materials, Alba Rojo (It is the Same, It is not Equal) and Lea Cantú (The Vacuous and the Dense) manage sculpture with its many possibilities. Alba Rojo, educated as a mathematician and heir to his father´s influences (artist Vicente Rojo) doesn´t hide his vocation for geometry and metal in these nine small sculptures.

Lea Cantú shows 30 sculptures, using organic materials such as clay, “ixtle”, and found objects of nature for her pieces.

There are two young Mexican artists, sculptor Rebeca Huerta and engraver Pablo Arteaga. Rebeca, with 16 works from 2005 to 2009 in glass and ceramic, shows us a high level in highly polished finishing techniques in her small glass pieces, in great contrast to the rough finish of the large ceramic pieces. And Pablo gives us a lesson in the monotype technique, with 11 works from 2008 and 2009, where the organic is the thematic conductor of his work.

Works on display January through March 2010. Free. Calle 60 x 61 y 63.