Gerardo Ruiz Maldonado retrospective at 60
By Melanie Harris de Maycotte June 27, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Art Opening
Gerardo Ruiz Maldonado
Sat, June 28, 7–9pm
Galeria/Atelier
Fábrica la Aurora

ART atelier 1

Many of us in San Miguel know Gerardo Ruiz Maldonado as a familiar face around town or even perhaps as the printmaking professor. To those who know him, he is an unassuming and kind man, willing to open his studio for a class, tour or even just a chat.

He has crafted a life to which all artists aspire: he’s knowledgeable, talented and willing to share. His art speaks of long study, dedication and patience, and he has given himself the time to perfect that art, being aware that the studies of an artist never end. He has rarely been concerned about the theme of his next show or the lapse of years since the last one, because his art is a personal pursuit of expression, one that takes time, and one that has already served its purpose to him once it has been placed on the canvas.

On the eve of Maldonado’s 60th birthday, it is my honor to share some of his long journey through art and to show where that journey has brought him today. I hope to bring his art to the spotlight, where it has earned its place, and to inspire some well-deserved applause.

Gerardo Ruiz Maldonado was born in Puebla, one of six siblings, and the only one who chose art. He credits his mother for having acknowledged his propensity for drawing and creating as a child as this, eventually, led him to pursue a career in art. Timing is always of the essence and Gerardo had the good sense to choose art at a time when art had just been recognized as a serious form of study.

The year he started art school at San Carlos, UNAM, in Mexico City, was the first year that the university had a rule that new students had to have finished preparatory school. Real Academia de San Carlos de las Nobles Artes, opened in 1781, is the first art school established in all of the Americas. It has been renamed and redefined as a leading art institution of the Americas on several occasions, most notably at the beginning of the twentieth century when Dr. Atl rallied his classmates to modernize teaching and inadvertently led the way for the twentieth-century Mexican vanguard, like José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siquieros, and led to the prevalence of the Mexican muralists for the next 50 years. It wasn’t until the seventies when Maldonado entered as a student that any other thought was given to the teachings of the new generation of Mexican painters. It became a time of much controversy as the by then aging vanguard wanted to maintain a curriculum based on the continuance of politi
cal themes in art to justify the revolution, as well as Mexican identity through the Escuela Mexicanista, or the folk tradition in art.

Maldonado and classmates sought new devices and modes that were more reflective of what was going on in the art world in the US and Europe in the sixties—abstract expressionism, pop art, the counterculture movement. They ended up taking over the school, becoming the professors and rewriting the curriculum. At the time, the government supported the arts and the school with unprecedented funds that the students and teachers used to bring top artists from the US and Europe as guest lecturers and professors. It was during this era that what was to become known as Mexican Art became more complicated and dispersed. It was through these encounters that Maldonado developed his artistic voice.

He is renowned for his knowledge of printmaking, an art form that has endured through the changing eras of the Mexican art scene and remains a vital and popular art tradition. As a master printmaker, Maldonado continues to teach a variety of techniques in his art school here in San Miguel.

All are invited to meet the artist at a cocktail reception hosted by Comida D’Alicia at Galería/Atelier. For more information, contact the gallery at info@galeriaatelier.com.

Melanie Harris de Maycotte is the director of Galería/Atelier.

Painting haiku
By Cati Demme

José Ignacio Maldonado is a writer who turned to painting in 1980. He has exhibited widely throughout Mexico and has inspired a new generation of painters while Artist in Residence at Instituto Allende.

Maldonado is exhibiting his latest still lifes in oil on canvas at the Generator Gallery at Fábrica la Aurora, July 5–30. The exhibit is entitled “7 Haiku.” 

His work reflects his immersion into Oriental philosophy; a journey into subtle, erudite simplicity. In the following brief essay, Maldonado elaborates on his creative process, citing Japanese and Chinese painters and poets who have inspired him along his path.

Cati Demme is an artist and is the owner and director of the Generator Gallery.

Other dreams/otros sueños
By Cynthia Buzzard

ArtWalk
July 11–13
Collective Exhibitions
Mineral de Pozos

Pozos resident Lena Bartula opens her studio gallery for the upcoming ArtWalk with a series of prints she calls “Other Dreams,” which made its debut at El Museo de la Ciudad in Querétaro in March of this year.

With a clear reference to Primero sueño (First dream), the best-known work of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, these alternative dream images refer to mundane visions that Bartula imagines for Juana in the eras since the seventeenth-century nun lived. After digitally altering the famous Miguel Cabrera portrait of Sor Juana, Bartula worked with Maestro Gilberto Guerrero Sanchez at Bellas Artes here to transform images into photo-transfer monoprints. 

After discovering Sor Juana on the 200-peso bill, Bartula began researching the story, to find that this poet nun is known as the first feminist of the New World, having been the first person to argue for women’s rights.

Also a scientist, mathematician, musician and philosopher, and often called a genius, Sor Juana was silenced by the Spanish Inquisition and was relatively unknown for almost three centuries.

Bartula’s homage to Sor Juana offers a contemporary, alternative view of what her life might have been, what her other passions and habits might include. Certainly hers was not Lives of the Saints even then, for she was always a step ahead of her sisters. In her dreams, might she not meet Frida Kahlo, and would they like each other? Would they be soul sisters or more than that? Would she be talking on her cell phone to people in every part of the world, whereas in her own time she could only write letters, not ever sure they would be received? Perhaps Converse would be her shoe of choice, street-smart, comfortable and a little funky. And at the end of a long day, perhaps she would slip into a little black dress, stiletto pumps, and steal away to a martini bar.


As much as some things change, some things remain constant. A woman like Sor Juana, in any city or any era, is bound by destiny to follow her heart and mind, and occasionally tread into territory that is, at best, inopportune and, at worst, perilous. Sor Juana’s dreams in this exhibition are the dreams of everywoman—to be heard, to be seen, to live in a world that is open to her, a world that regards her as an individual. In this way, Other Dreams is ultimately about unsilencing.

Cynthia Buzzard is a filmmaker living in Mineral de Pozos.

Art as the ultimate healer
By Peter Leventhal

Art Opening
Margarette Dawit
Sat, July 5, 5–8pm
Generator Gallery
Fábrica la Aurora
Lecture
Sun, July 13, 12–1pm
Generator Gallery
Fábrica la Aurora
Free

I am listening, at this moment, to “Frühling,” one of Vier Letze Lieder by Richard Strauss set to a poem by Hermann Hesse.

It reminds me that for a civilized human being, life needs aesthetic justification: an aesthetic order of the infinitude of various astounding, gorgeous events, some quotidian, some sublime, that pass through our existence.

Aesthetic work constructs an outward appearance of our inner experience; in the Strauss songs, a calm acceptance of life and its completeness in death, which pervades the deep sonority of the music.

It reminds me, as the sage says, that heaven is open to no one. Only at the end of time, when the last man has left the world, will heaven open its mystery.

Only art possesses the chance to heal the spirit. So much comes with superb art no matter the body of great art preceding it. A contemporary vision, intense, intelligent and beautiful exhilarates us. In the masterful hands of Margarette Dawit, painting opens into an ennobling series of sensations which we recognize as the truth. What Schiller says of beauty, that it comes to us first as an aesthetic moment and later comes to us as the truth, may be seen in the works that Dawit presents here. We recognize the world with a reinvigorated vision; the configurations of forms, the judicious subtlety of color, presented with an intense and special integrity.

This comes from a fierce commitment in the handling of the paint. Nothing insipid or bankrupt mars this picture making. The rectitude of application and brushwork permeates every centimeter of canvas. This consummate artistry, part alchemical, part spiritual, envelopes each mark and every description. It is always inventive and always beautiful. No matter how stunning or full of bravura, no matter how audacious the gesture, it always fixes on a single goal: the gorgeous elucidation of the physical world.

In effect, this is all we can ask of art; that it sincerely affect us; that the essential integrity of what exists be present and visible. This is how art is tonic.

It precedes thought; it is not of the mind. There exists an intelligence of the senses. When we are in touch with this we feel a tonic connection with life. This is how art heals.

Peter Leventhal is a painter and a full-time resident of San Miguel.

Magenta’s summer look
By Judit Gimbel

Art Opening
Rebecca Peterson, Judit Gimbel, Rosa Torres, 
Jo Brenzo, Gary Berkowitz, Elvia Montibeller
Sat, June 28, 6–8pm
Galería Magenta
Mesones 57, int. B

Galería Magenta presents a new summer look and invites you to peruse the creations of six multi-dimensional San Miguel artists at a wine and appetizer opening. The artists featured in this brightly lit, open-space gallery offer a feast for the eyes and soul.

The gallery Magenta represents working artists who pour heart and creativity into sculpting, painting, printmaking, collage, photography, ceramics or teaching.

Rebecca Peterson creates nichos, precious treasures that she intuitively and respectfully assembles in an embellished tin box to tell a mystical story. The viewer can easily escape into a world of fantasy.

 Recently, she is using images of birds and insects. Her mixed-media collage and figurative works on paper are not to be missed.

Judit Gimbel exhibits colorful paintings depicting her love for multicultural adventure and exploration of plein aire painting throughout Europe, Mexico, New York and California.

Judit shares her knowledge passionately through her unique painting workshops offered in San Miguel. Her latest great joy is painting landscapes here, where she found a palette of colors unique to San Miguel. She has an affinity for figurative work, also shown in the gallery. Gimbel says, “My gift to the universe is to bring joy to others through the glory of color and subjects that evoke gleefulness and inspiration.”

Rosa Torres expresses her love for life in Mexico through her amazing ability to hand-mold clay in an expressive way that depicts her ingenuity. Her whimsical teapots are a combination of freehand building and wheel construction. They are a reminder of the lucid side of this artist that has been characteristic of her work for years. Her glazes and firing create a distinctive array of color and beauty, thus creating a happy site for the eyes and heart. She says, “My new vessels represent my creative moments and need for experimentation.”

Jo Brenzo is the photographer for the book Lord of the Dolls: Voyage in Xochimilco that she worked on with writer Eva Hunter for seven years. Brenzo is an accomplished photographer who has taught at Bellas Artes for the past 16 years and through her own school, Academia de Fotografia. Most of her work is black and white, or hand-colored black and white images. She captures the emotional essence of people, as well as the culture of Mexico. She says, “I started as a documentary photographer and over the years my work became more and more conceptual.” She displays a magnificent ensemble of photos that illustrate life in Germany, a project that she worked on for three years.

Gary Berkowitz is proficient in printmaking and teaches complex techniques with great zest. He and Brenzo show an artistic playfulness in their “Ray-Maiz” sunglasses, made from corn husks and bamboo. The husks are dyed and wrapped around bamboo with cut-designed comical images, which capture glimpses of the real and imaginary world. Ray-Maiz are exclusive, definitely a must-see and are quite the conversation piece. When asked how he gets his novel ideas, Berkowitz laughed and said, “I keep my eyes and ears open to the world that surrounds me and my brain does the rest.”

Elvia Montibeller has run the gamut of painting. Once a figurative painter and muralist, she has found her present passion in abstract expressionism.

Her art ranges from painting intuitively on canvas using earth colors accented by brightly colored vigorous strokes, to abstract carved wood and marble sculptures. Her wood sculptures show her innate ability to transform her paintings into carefully molded and carved abstraction. Looking at her paintings, you can see layer upon layer of paint and brushstrokes that take the viewer into a wild abstract world. She seeks to represent movement in her art, ‘‘A universe that can take you wherever you desire.’’

You are invited to celebrate summer and meet the artists. If you can’t make the opening, call 154-5366 or stop by and visit 11am–6pm, Monday–Saturday or 11am–3pm Sundays (closed Tuesdays). The gallery is next to Border Crossings and China Palace Restaurant.

First paintings by young, self-taught Mexican artist
By Nonie Mulcaster

Art Opening
Rufino Reyes
Tue, July 1, 5–8pm
RaLuz Sala de Arte
Posada de San Francisco
Plaza Principal 2

Rufino Reyes appeared in my garden, out of the blue—a thin, shy adolescent with dark brown eyes and a hungry look. He wanted a job and I could not turn him away, so he became my gardener.

That was five years ago and he has now become a self-confident, sturdy young man who presents himself with ease and is obviously intelligent, though naive. The semi-jungle environment of Veracruz, where he grew up, gave him little opportunity to mature, nor did the need to help his father with the orange plantation that was their livelihood. They took him out of school early. The crop was insecure and often failed, so they went hungry. For this reason his father sent him to San Miguel de Allende in hope that he would find a better life.

I have enjoyed watching Rufino respond to his new environment and become self-confident and responsible. From his gardener’s salary, he sends financial help to his parents each month.

Rufino is very intelligent and takes every opportunity to learn new things. I asked him what he would like to do in his spare time. Would he like to play a guitar, and he said “no;” would he like to paint and he surprised me by an eager “yes,” so I gave him a place in my studio, provided him with acrylic paints, good-quality watercolor paper and talked to him about art as a language. I stressed the importance of believing that his own ideas were right for him. That was the only “instruction” I gave him. Eagerly, he plunged into painting landscapes from memory of the lush countryside of Veracruz.

Rufino had always longed to paint but could not afford the materials and had never received any instruction. He had seen a TV program on how to paint a landscape and felt that he could do that! He went to the studio and painted the first painting of his life. I was amazed at the quality of his work. He just did what came naturally and produced a creative, original painting which was followed by a series of paintings exploring his deep feelings about the land he loves.


Several of my artist friends have expressed a desire to buy one of his paintings. This gave Rufino a desire to exhibit, in the hope that he could raise some money to replace the shack his parents live in with a better house—a house with a cement floor, a roof that does not leak and solid walls. This is his dream and people who have seen his work have been very kind in wanting to help.

Wynona C. Mulcaster retired to San Miguel 32 years ago from Saskatchewan where she had a long and successful career as a painter and teacher of art at the University of Saskatchewan. She is a member of the prestigious Royal Canadian Academy and received a medal from the Queen for her artistic and teaching achievements.