The painter Matthieu Kuhn will leave San Miguel after more than 10 years in Mexico to return to his native France in April. His many friends and the public are invited to a special "bon voyage" showing of his work. Kuhn is one of the most original artists in San Miguel. Thoroughly trained in the European classical tradition, he can sculpt and paint fine landscapes or portraits.

His strongest works by far, however, are his figure drawings/paintings of massive nudes free-falling or floating in mysterious spaces. His people, both men and women, have bald heads and bemused (perhaps sheepish) expressions on their simple faces as they reach out to each other. They are often floating above-but never solidly settled on-horses, or sometimes pigs or burros. They are all masterfully drawn. As metaphors for life, they are open to many interpretations. Men and women reach out to each other but can't quite touch. The animals' faces are as expressive, or more so, than those of the people. The humans' faces are quite childlike and dreamy, as though they have not yet learned much from being in their strange settings. No one, not animal or human, is set solidly in place. All are in flux-they have no anchor, no roots. They seem bemused, but none seems afraid, anxious or angry to be set in a world with pigs and rabbits passing nearby through thin air.

In some of Kuhn's recent works (such as those seen at his current show at ArtPrint, upstairs at calle San Francisco 11), a note of urgency has entered. A layer of creatures is, for example, trapped underground. Overall, and despite his own protests, Kuhn's work has less in common with contemporary painting in France (where he has shown and sold most of his work all his life) than it has with German painters such as Neo Rauch and others now working in Leipzig and other German art centers.

Except for the last few months at Galería Izamal, Kuhn has shown very little work in San Miguel. This may be the last chance to see the work of this fine young painter.

The work of Izamal painters Juan Ezcurdia, Mike Kleimo, Marion Perlet, Henry Vermillion and Britt Zaist and jeweler María Bracho will also be shown. The show ends April 3. Art exhibit works by Matthieu Kuhn and Izamal artists Saturday, March 25, 6-8pm Galería Izamal, Mesones 80

Expressionism and spiritual release
By Peter Leventhal

As with many terms associated with the arts, "expressionism" has two meanings. Capitalized, the word refers to one of the essential movements in 20th-century modern art, primarily as located in German-speaking Europe and associated with two strongly influential groups: die Brucke, the Bridge, and der Blaue Reiter, the Blue Rider.

Written lowercase, "expressionism" refers to an art of heightened emotionality and intensified feeling, expressed in gestures and physiognomy in which energy, dynamic compression of form and a general search for ways to express passion predominate.

In expressionism, spirituality asserts itself in ecstatic gesture. The Northern Gothic style of the 15th century never ceased its power of influence on the creative impulse of Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Hungary. Sometimes grotesque and brutal-bold in coloration and archetypes of suffering, joy, spiritual release and passion-the expressionist artist creates in highly plastic work with an independent and intense spirit. Preeminently, the human form carries out the meaning: the inner life of mankind manifests in visible form.

In her work now on exhibit at Espacio Jean Vigo at Fábrica La Aurora, Edina Sagert fashions a series of faces in the expressionist manner. Unequivocally, these paintings in oil and encaustic present us with an intensified view of the human condition. The nervous lines maintain a gravity of expression; the most decisive aspect of expression is in its line, and beneath this a psychology of similar gravity unfolds. Expressionism came out of a period of great anxiety: anxiety about the wanton destruction of human life and values, of traditional behaviors, of spiritual meaning devoured by greed and war. If it had a prophetic aspect its intention led it to a heightened spiritual belief in the life of feeling, as unruly as that might be.

In Sagert's work we find a kind of spiritual release in a confrontation with what we fear most: a loss of self, a terminal nervousness that destruction of human values, of love, compassion and feeling is imminent in the culture of greed and pecuniary aggrandizement. One aspect of expressionism that removes it from the modernist idiom has to do with its attachment to fundamental human verities: love, sex, pain, struggle and redemption. For all its modernist attributes of abstraction, and a fascination and respect for non-Western art, expressionism focuses on the human image, on the inherent properties of the material. It avoids reduction and idealism. Always imbued with evocative strength, it has proved to be an enduring mode of creative expressive activity, whereas cubism or futurism are always fixed in a particular time.

Sagert paints with a mixed technique of oil and encaustic. Encaustic, an ancient practice using melted wax and pigment, creates beautiful surfaces and a profound luminosity even in the darkest tonal range. Layers of oil and wax, drawn over with a white oil crayon, multiply the textural layering in these pictures. The literal depth of the image adds to its expressive range. Edina Sagert's antecedents are the Brucke group, Kirchner, Heckel, Scmidt-Rottluff and Fritz Bleyl, and most pronouncedly the Austrians Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoshcka. Like them, the psychological power of the image comes from distortion, which always interpolates a psychic condition and is never a game in and of itself. Serious in intent as they may be, a strange humor pops out, which only amplifies the sense of the tragic. Art Exhibit

Paintings by Edina Sagert
Friday, March 24, 7-9pm
Espacio Jean Vigo 
Fábrica La Aurora

Of strings, statues, songs and stages

The first San Miguel de Allende Contemporary Art Festival brings together a diverse group of artists, both young and established, in a celebration of music, theater, performance art and puppeteering. All events are free.

The festival kicks off with an official inauguration at Teatro Ángela Peralta at 7pm on Friday, March 31, marked by simultaneous ribbon-cutting ceremonies at Galería RaLuz, located in Hotel Posada de San Francisco, and Museo Casa Allende. At 7:45pm Antonio Malacara, jazz columnist for La Jornada, will speak on the esplanade of the Jardín. The first concert begins at 8pm in the Jardín. "Java and Jazz" features Mario Ochoa on guitar, Napoleón Ochoa on keyboard and Bogdan Chávez on percussion. This set is followed by "No Te Hagas," featuring Enrique Castro on guitar, Jorge Torres on bass and Pedro Arellano on drums.

The festival continues at noon on Saturday, April 1, with a presentation by accordion expert Salomón Canelo in the kiosk of the Jardín. At 6pm, performance artist Montserrat will be a living statue in the Jardín, a performance repeated at 7:15pm at Teatro Ángela Peralta. At 8pm the play Los Cien Ojos del Rey (The King's Hundred Eyes)-whose characters include Marco Polo, Kublai Khan and two courtesans-will be performed.

At noon on Sunday, April 2, Mónica Hoth, an award-winning puppeteer, performs in the Jardín's kiosk. At 6pm, two musical groups play at Teatro Ángela Peralta. José Luis Chagoyán ("Hopalong") on bass, Gil Gutiérrez on guitar and Pedro Cartas on violin are followed by singers Birgit Peña Hawfla and Barbara Hawfla. Following this concert the official closing of the festival takes place at Teatro Ángela Peralta.

Copper art at La Carpa
By Carlos Hernández Cruz

Artisans in pre-Hispanic towns worked metals such as gold, silver and copper with great skill and finesse. The Spanish conquerors exploited and increased the mining of precious metals and introduced new techniques for extraction of ore and metalcraft. Today's artisans work in a tradition that combines indigenous, traditional methods and native symbology with skills and motifs imported from Spain.

Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, has continued this tradition of artistry, concentrating, as the city's name implies, on copper crafts. The work of its artisans has been recognized internationally.

Craft House of Michoacán (CASART) has greatly contributed to showcasing work from various towns in the state of Michoacán and to supporting craftsmen by advertising and selling their work and offering them training courses. 

To celebrate the second anniversary of CASART in San Miguel de Allende, Santa Clara del Cobre is collaborating on an exhibition of the work of 12 artisans who create hammered copper pieces. Demonstrations will be given at two times on Friday, March 24, and once on Saturday, March 25, at La Carpa.

Artisan demonstration, copper craftsmen of Santa Clara del Cobre

Friday, March 24, noon and 5pm
Saturday, March 25, noon
La Carpa, Calzada de la Aurora

Pinto remembered at Instituto Allende

James Pinto, Instituto Allende's first art director, and his wife, Ruska, came to San Miguel de Allende from the United States, where they immigrated from Yugoslavia in the late 1940s. Immediately, the artist established himself within the then-fledgling art scene in San Miguel.

Shortly thereafter, he teamed up with Nell and Enrique Fernández and Stirling Dickinson, the founders of the renowned art school. Pinto fit the bill and became the Instituto's first director of art. His wife became the Instituto's first office manager. 

Pinto was an inspiration to his students. He was primarily a muralist, but he also involved himself with and instructed painters in diverse techniques that at the time were considered cutting-edge. He was known to his peers as a painter's painter. Many of his students stayed in San Miguel after achieving their degrees at Instituto Allende. Pinto remained at the art school for almost 30 years and stayed in San Miguel until his death.

Other than works in private collections, the majority of his paintings are owned by the University of Guanajuato. Much of that prized collection will be on display at the special reception. Some of his muses and past students will be on hand to reflect on the man, his legacy and what this great painter meant to Instituto Allende and San Miguel's art community. Refreshments will be available.

April at Bellas Artes

Art exhibit, Momento, movimiento, by Paula Balderas

Sala Principal
Friday, April, 7 
7:30 pm



Art exhibit, The passion of constructing spaces (La pasión de construir espacios) by Rafael Canogar

Sala de Arte Mexicano
Until May 7
Gallery hours Tuesday to Saturday
10am to 5:30pm
Hernández Macías 75, Centro




Festival, 3rd Annual Festival of puppets
 
April 29 to May 7 
Auditorio Miguel Malo