Conaculta Inba

TO PUBLIC OPINION

 
 
The Academic Council of the Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información de Artes Plásticas (Cenidiap), of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), hereby expresses its concern regarding the works being carried out at the building once occupied by the former Secretaría de Comunicaciones, Transportes y Obras Públicas, (SCOP), in Eje Central and Xola, in Mexico City. We request that INBA make a public pronouncement in defense of the preservation and restoration of the murals and sculptures located in the building, through its corresponding department, in conformity with the laws regarding the protection of Mexico’s artistic heritage.
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La Esmeralda in the Student Movement of 68

Leticia Galaviz and José Serrato
 
 
Those of us who enrolled in 1965 in Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura (ENPE) “La Esmeralda” were a young, restless group. Many came from provincial cities in Mexico, some came from abroad. We all had great expectations for our education at this national school. Continuar Leyendo →

Episodio by Estrella Carmona and 7102 Fantasma Semiótico SCituacionista

María Eugenia Garmendia Carbajal and Edwina Moreno Guerra
 
 
Estrella Carmona is one of the artists under consideration within our research project at Cenidiap: ‘Representaciones Apocalípticas, Catastróficas y Silentes en el Arte Pictórico Contemporáneo Mexicano’. We visited two exhibitions of her work: a solo show at Museo de Arte de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, and a collective exhibition at Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil. Continuar Leyendo →

Carlos Amorales at MUAC: Axioms for Action (1996-2018)

Edwina Moreno Guerra
 
 
It is remarkable for a young Mexican artist like Carlos Amorales (Mexico City, 1970) to exhibit at Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC).
Havig lived and trained in Europe (1990-2004), he returned to Mexico as an established artist. This exhibition showcases pieces from different and even disparate genres. The effort invested in developing each piece is apparent; spectators have to concentrate in order to fully appreciaate them. There are no distinctive marks to give the show a degree of coherence, but if we were told that this is actually a collective exhibition we would promptly believe it, because he engages with so many artistic disciplines: drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, performance, installation, sound art, cinema, writing, and other non traditional forms. Continuar Leyendo →

Apocalyptic, catastrophic and silent representations in contemporary Mexican painting

Adriana Zapett, Edwina Moreno y María Eugenia Garmendia
 
 
Introduction
 
 
One of the modalities of contemporary Mexican painting seems troubling to us, as it displays the self-destructive potential of human beings both individually and collectively, bearing witness to angst and hopelessness. In images of strange beauty, dealing with cruelty and the tearing apart, the injury or mutilation of the body, or perhaps the crumbling down of an imaginary space represented on canvas, the painter transforms the death drive into figurability. (1) Continuar Leyendo →

Inaugural Session of the VII Conference on Research and Documentation in the Visual Arts

Carlos Guevara Meza
 
 
Read at Aula Magna, Cenart, Mexico City, October 18, 2017
 
 
Good morning.
 
 
On behalf of the National Center for Research, Documentation and Information on the Visual Arts (Cenidiap) it is an honor to welcome you to this

VII Conference on Research and Documentation in the Visual Arts

. I appreciate the presence of the authorities of the National Arts Center (Cenart) and the General Subdirection of Arts Education and Research (SGEIA) of the National Institute of Fie Arts (INBA) who are joining us here today, as well as the participation of both the speakers and the audience, here at this conference room and through the internet. Continuar Leyendo →

Conference on the Aesthetics of Science Fiction

Carlos Guevara Meza
 
 
Read at Aula Magna, Cenart, Mexico City, on November 23, 2017.
 
 

Good morning.
 
 
On behalf of the National Center for Research, Documentation and Information on the Visual Arts, I warmly welcome you to this Conference on the Aesthetics of Science Fiction, whose purpose it is to think in earnest the depths of something which, regrettably in my opinion, is regarded by many (and even if it were by just one it would still be too much) as mere entertainment, both ordinary and superficial, except for a handful of established masterworks. Continuar Leyendo →

RESISTING FOR LIFE

Alberto Híjar Serrano
 
 
If Felipe Ehrenberg (1943-2017) were still here, we would have discussed the gatherong resistance against the State’s so-called “historical truth” about Ayotzinapa, through slogans, texts, and graphic art, constantly moving not only in Mexico and the United States, but in Europe and other far-off places. The rural and popular roots of the Ayotzinapa relatives meet libertarian intelectual lucidity, bringing about a high-impact knowledge all over the world, against the systemic corruption of late capitalism. Continuar Leyendo →

Rediscovering Mural Paintings: Works for Children by Carlos Mérida and Emilio Amero

Guillermina Guadarrama Peña
 
 
In August, 2016, restorers from Centro Nacional de Conservación y Registro del Patrimonio Artístico Mueble, INBA (CNCRPAM) , began preservation work on the mural paintings located at what is today the Belisario Domínguez grammar school, in Colonia Guerrero, Mexico City. The hallway, the corridors on both floors and some classrooms are covered with paintings made by students from Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado La Esmeralda in the 1950’s. Back then, the school was in the opposite building and it was a suitable place for carrying out student practices. Antonio M. Ruiz, Pablo O’Higgins and Arnold Belkin were mural painting teachers at different times in that period. Continuar Leyendo →

Siqueiros’ Three Names

Guillermina Guadarrama Peña
 
 
David Alfaro Siqueiros’ actual name was José de Jesús David.[1] This wasn’t unusual in the 19th century; children were given more than two names, even up to six or seven. He was baptized in the church of San José, on January 11, 1897, near the home adress on his certificate of baptism: 30 Arcos de Belén, where there is a furniture shop today. Back then, people would only baptize their children, omitting to inscribe their birth on the Public Registry office, but according to Raquel Tibol in an article published in Proceso magazine, there is indeed a birth certificate but it was issued in Irapuato, Guanajuato, where he was allegedly registered when he was already three years old, by his grandparents, but she didn’t produce any photographs. It may be true, because after his mother died giving birth to his brother Jesús Mario Luis Francisco, his father took them along with their sister María de la Luz to their paternal grandparents’ house in Irapuato. But apparently Siqueiros’ third name wasn’t written down on his birth certificate. Continuar Leyendo →

The Community Art of Taller de Investigación Plástica

Guillermina Guadarrama Peña
 
 
The Taller de Investigación Plástica (TIP) was a multidisciplinary artistic collective born in the upheavals of the 1970’s, a time of major social movements. It was the first group to produce community art in Mexico, a kind of public art that emerged when “individualism and art for art’s sake began to be replaced by collaboration, social relevance, process and context” [1]
It was an avant-garde proposal, misunderstood at the time, arguing that the meaning of art should be found at its physical or social site, not in a museum, and it should involve its target audience, in order to turn it into a tool for social change. Continuar Leyendo →

Un mismo amor

Alberto Híjar Serrano
 
 
Without him knowing, or quoting from it, the Cannibal Manifiesto (São Paulo, 1928) gives aesthetic sense to the work of Gerardo Cantú exhibited at Museo Mural Diego Rivera under the title Un mismo amor. Vivencias y videncias. Among the phrases adroitly sprinkled here and there to accompany the works, there is one highlighted in red on the triptych that substitutes the catalogue: “with Cantú we arrive at the awkwardness of love, but love still, and perhaps a love more sincere and higher than that which the romantics exalted in their time”, says Ida Rodríguez. Continuar Leyendo →

Raquel Tibol

Alberto Híjar Serrano
 
 
The introduction to the anthology Raquel Tibol, la crítica y la militancia, published by Centro de Estudios del Movimiento Obrero y Socialista, recounts the life and miracles of the redoubtable critic, from her beginnings as a writer and journalist in her native Argentina. During a Continental Conference on Culture, promoted by Pablo Neruda in Santiago, Chile, in 1952, she met Diego Rivera and decided to accept the task of organizing the Mexican section. Her quick, efficient and clear writing style opened the path for her to join projects aimed at achieving national liberation and socialism.
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SPECULAR – second series

Fictive Criticism

Alfredo Gurza

Invaluable images from the collections kept by Cenidiap, in dialogue with fabulations and inventions, free-style exercises of the imagination, as mirrors reflecting each other, revealing unexpected affinities and contrasts, interweavings beneath the surface, telling resonances. A proposal to re-circulate this heritage, in order to contribute to generating new audiences and strengthening the Center as a reference point for the national and international community of researchers, documentalists and creators. Continuar Leyendo →

SPECULAR

Fictive Criticism

ALFREDO GURZA

 

In line with Cenidiap’s essential mission to produce and foster research, documentation and information on visual arts in Mexico and the rest of the world, we present this series, where we will be periodically publishing images from the invaluable archives housed in our Center, placing them in conversation with fabulations and inventions, free-form exercises of the imagination, as mirrors in reciprocal reflection, revealing unexpected affinities and contrasts, interweavings beneath the surface, telling resonances. Continuar Leyendo →

THREE BY MALEVICH

Alfredo Gurza
 
 
The dazzling Russian avant-garde exhibition at the Fine Arts Palace in Mexico City (October 22, 2015-February 7, 2016) provides a perfect opportunity to present three articles by Kazimir Malevich, the creator of suprematism, whose influence on the critical practice of the arts is perhaps greater today than it was a century ago, when the depths of his work were only beginning to be sounded. Continuar Leyendo →

Exhibition Morphologies. Fine Arts Palace Museum: 1934-2014

Ana Garduño
 
 
Curatorial policy at what is today known as the Fine Arts Palace Museum has always been particularly notorious when it comes to the visual arts; this is due in large measure to its status as an official art gallery. Its exhibitions have had greater cultural significance, not only in its natural area of influence, Mexico City, but also in the interior of the country. Historiographically, the success of its montages, especially those that received positive evaluations by both specialists and the general public, have even radiated over cultural capitals with a certain museistic power, above all in Latin America. Continuar Leyendo →