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La Revolución Mexicana: 100 Years Later Marks Centennial of the Mexican Revolution with Works of Art From One of the Greatest Living Mexican Printmakers Exhibition on View at McNay Art Museum through November 24
San Antonio, TX (August 29, 2019) – Opening today at McNay Art Museum, La Revolución Mexicana: 100 Years Later marks the centennial of the end of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) with a spotlight on Michoacan printmaker Artemio Rodriguez. His portfolio of 18 linoleum block prints created in 2010 to mark the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican Revolution is on view together for the first time at the McNay.
The brilliantly contrasting black and white linocuts include portraits of prominent figures on both sides of the struggle. The artist’s portrait of dictator Porfirio Díaz and the Eurocentric nature of his rule strikingly contrasts the portrait of the great revolutionary leader, Emiliano Zapata, on horseback in rural Mexico with small farms and mountains in the background.
“Many Mexican families fleeing the violence of the Revolution came to San Antonio and surrounding areas in search of safety,” said Lyle Williams, McNay Curator of Prints and Drawings. “San Antonio’s ties to the Mexican Revolution run very deep, and the exhibition is timed to be on view during the city’s Diez y Seis celebrations in September.”
Complementing Rodriguez’s portfolio are prints from the McNay’s extensive collection of portraits of Zapata by Diego Rivera, Melanie Cervantes, Ignacio Aguirre, Sarah Jiménez, Francisco Mora, José Clemente Orozco, Luis "Teak" Rodriguez, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Some of the exhibition’s contemporary portraits of the revolutionary are new acquisitions on view for the first time, and are a testament to Zapata’s enduring legacy in the social, political, and cultural life of Mexico.
A video by Cecilia Rascón highlights the roles women played during the Mexican Revolution, and features one of the most famous photographs of women in this moment—Soladeras by Geronimo Hernandez.
La Revolución Mexicana: 100 Years Later is organized for the McNay Art Museum by Lyle W. Williams, Curator of Prints and Drawings. It is on view in the Charles Butt Paperworks Gallery through November 24, 2019.
Lead funding is most generously provided by the Elizabeth Huth Coates Exhibition Endowment and the Arthur and Jane Stieren Fund for Exhibitions. Additional funding is provided by the Louis A. and Frances B. Wagner Lecture Series and the William Randall Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs.
Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m9lc581m3dgrtuj/AACui2c_4IHwVnpnSYR83au7a?dl=0
About the McNay Art Museum The McNay Art Museum engages a diverse community in the discovery and enjoyment of the visual arts. Built in the 1920s by artist and educator Marion Koogler McNay, the Spanish Colonial Revival residence became the site of Texas’s first museum of modern art when it opened in 1954. Today, 200,000 visitors a year enjoy works by modern masters including Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The 23 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds include sculptures by Robert Indiana, Luis A. Jiménez Jr., George Rickey, Joel Shapiro, and Kiki Smith. The 45,000 square-foot Jane & Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions, designed by internationally renowned French architect Jean-Paul Viguier, features three significant exhibitions annually.
For almost 65 years, the McNay has enchanted visitors with its art, architecture, and ambiance. The museum offers rich and varied exhibitions as well as rotating displays in the Main Collection Galleries from the 20,000 works in the collection; more than 45,000 adults, teachers, students, and families take advantage of a variety of education programs and innovative educational resources.