One of the main attractions of the contemporary art museum Museo Fernando García Ponce-Macay are the permanent exhibits, dedicated to three great Yucatecan artists: Fernando Castro Pacheco (1918-2013), Gabriel Ramírez Aznar (1938) and the artist who the museum is named for, Fernando García Ponce (1933-1987).The joint vision offered by these three exhibits allows you to travel through two special moments in the history of Mexican art. On the one hand, Fernando Castro Pacheco is related to the Mexican “realist” school, abandoning social themes somewhat, with more of a fantastic and poetic vision, and themes of the everyday and local customs.
On the other hand, Fernando García Ponce and Gabriel Ramírez Aznar belong to the “rupture” movement, which broke away from the Escuela Mexicana de Pintura. That generation opened new paths toward what today we know and recognize as contemporary art.
Artists including Manuel Felguérez, José Luis Cuevas, Vicente Rojo, Alberto Gironella, Lilia Carrillo, and Vlady joined this movement, which had impact not only on visual arts but also other areas like literature, theater, and dance.
The Fernando Castro Pacheco salon presents “Tres etapas históricas del pueblo yucateco”, an oil painting from 1958. The drama and sensitivity of the lines in this work is an example of his drawing skills but also his great experience as a colorist, unique to the style of this maestro.
In addition to social themes, Castro Pacheco also had an exquisite sensitivity for everyday subjects, sometimes touching on the erotic. In this collection you can also see “Caminante del Mayab” (1976), “La torteadora”, and “Hanal Pixan” (1975). This last work formed part of the exhibition “Food for the Souls”, organized in 2012 by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago (NMMA).
The salon displaying Gabriel Ramírez Aznar’s work catches the spectator in an explosion of color, where greens, yellows, and reds predominate. In these works there are abstract elements but also figurative ones; there is humor and there is critique; there is reflection and harmony; and there is a criss-cross of dialogues between drawing and painting.
Your tour of the permanent exhibits ends with the three areas dedicated to Fernando García Ponce, with 33 medium and large format works, created in acrylic paints, mixed media, and collage.
In the first part you can see the beginnings of the painter’s work. Then you will note the purification of style and his inclination toward geometric abstractionism, which distinguished him within the “rupture” generation. This interest is reminiscent of his formal studies as an architect, which granted him a keen vision of space, composition, and structure.
Calle 60 x 61 y 63, Centro
10 am – 6 pm
Closed on Tuesdays
www.macay.org
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