May 16, 2008, Capital Comments, By Jim Johnston, Current shows at three Mexico City museums, The two-step and tintypes: Kendrick’s cowboys at the Sierra Nevada, By Erica Hoelscher

Capital Comments
By Jim Johnston May 16, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Current shows at three Mexico City museums

After years of looking at art in Mexico City, I have learned to trust the quality of exhbitions at certain museums, and be wary of others. Great shows are currently on display at three of my favorite spots (details below). If you are coming to Mexico City to look at art, here are two useful tips. Buy a copy of Tiempo Libre magazine when you arrive (it’s published every Thursday). It has good listings of art events (under Museos), including art openings (Inauguraciones), which can be fun evening events. Also, check out the website www.arte-mexico.com for current art events. They also publish a map that you can pick up for free in most galleries.

The paintings of Daniel Lezama (b. Mexico, 1968), now on display at the Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico, are compelling on several levels. His rich palette of colors, the dramatic lighting effects, his facile, dancing brushwork, a secure sense of drawing and composition, all serve to seduce and delight the eye.

An artist trained in classic technique is a rare treat these days. References to Goya, Caravaggio and Rubens abound, but the effect is not one of slavish copying or historical homage, but of something fresh, as yet unseen.

His subject matter intrigues, disturbs and at times revolts the viewer with scenes of naked children, ritual sex acts and mindless violence that press the limits of the lurid and the pornographic, but never pass them. Lezama is a storyteller, each canvas suggesting a complex history that speaks of Freudian analysis and pagan ritual, spiced with large doses of Mexican history, folklore and religion. The actors in his tales—fat, drunk, poor, bleeding—inhabit their roles with a calmness and inevitability that adds to their strangeness, like characters in a Flannery O’Connor story. There are suggestions of both dream and nightmare, but the reality of his painting denies either interpretation—these canvases stare straight at you, wide awake. The greatness of Lezama’s work is its artful balance of these potentially conflicting forces, the seeming rightness of everything that looks wrong.

The paintings of Daniel Lezama will be at the Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico (Pino Suarez 30 near El Salvador) until June 29. For more information about the artist, visit www.daniellezama.net.

While you are at this museum, don’t miss the studio of Joaquin Clausell on the top floor—one of the city’s hidden treasures. And if you’re ready for comida after the show, try the restaurant Rinconada, directly across from the museum on the plaza (go upstairs).

Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso (Justo Sierra 16 in the Centro Historico) always presents shows of high quality; it’s one of the city’s best museums.

The current show offers photographs by a Brazilian artist, now living in New York, Vik Muniz (b. Sao Paolo, 1961). The work is presented in chronological order, allowing us to see clearly the artist’s development. Muniz often starts with borrowed images—journalistic photos from back issues of Life magazine, old master paintings, photos of movie stars—and then copies them, or re-creates them using a variety of unusual materials (dirt, chocolate, diamonds, plastic toys, etc.). The resulting images are then photographed, sometimes manipulated in the process. At first, I had that sinking feeling I sometimes get at contemporary art galleries that the artist had spent too much time in graduate school, resulting in objects that are far less interesting than the text which describes them: “art as idea” rather than “art as art.” By the end of the show, however, I was won over by Muniz’ prodigious technique, which merits close inspection. The photos are the end product of the artist’s labor as painter, sculptor, etcher. This guy knows how to draw, although after the first series of photos, you won’t see signs of pen or pencil. His double Mona Lisa (after Warhol) done in peanut butter and jelly; a gigantic Raft of the Medusa (Gericault) in chocolate syrup, Bela Lugosi in caviar, and Goya’s Saturn Devouring his Child fashioned from discarded scrap metal are some of his more audacious images (it sounds funnier than it looks). Others, made from sugar, dust, or miles of thread, are more subtle. The images become more alluring, even decorative, in his recent work; a series made from colorful plastic toys are pointilist masterpieces. The show closes September 14. The artist’s website is www.vikmuniz.net.

While at the museum, one of the city’s great monuments of colonial architecure, be sure to see Diego Rivera’s 1922 mural La Creación. It’s to the left as you enter the museum—not well marked, so ask for help finding it.

Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) used to be a somewhat dowdy place with too many colonial paintings of saints and madonnas. They cleaned it up a few years ago (it’s air-conditioned now) and everything seems to sparkle here. For anyone interested in Mexican art history, this is the place to start.

The first floor is now used for changing exhibitions and the current show “Mexico y la Estampa Moderna, 1920-1950” is one of their best. Primarily black-and-white woodcuts and linoleum cuts, lithographs and etchings, the show is beautifully displayed according to various themes that highlight technical, aesthetic and political aspects of printmaking in Mexico. The graphic arts have been particularly strong in Mexico since the nineteenth century when José Guadalupe Posada created his indelible images (e.g., La Calaca Caterina, that skeleton with the big feathered hat you see all over). Big names here include Diego Rivera (luscious lithographs), José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Leopoldo Méndez, but there are lots of surprises. You have until June 8 to see the show. The museum’s website is www.munal.com.mx.

Jim Johnston, a 10-year resident of San Miguel, now lives in Mexico City. He is author of Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler, available on amazon.com. You can read his blog at www.mexicocitydf.blogspot.com.

Other Mexico City art museums

Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporáneo, Campos Elíseos

Permanent collections are impressive, and exhibits from the Louvre and the Prado are occasionally displayed here. The Center also houses a photographic art section and many pre-Hispanic artifacts.

Museo Anahuacalli, Museo 150 (http://www.anahuacallimuseo.org

This dramatic museum was designed by Diego Rivera to house his own collection of pre-Hispanic art, mostly pottery and stone figures. The fortress-like building is made of dark volcanic stone and incorporates many pre-Hispanic stylistic features. It also contains one of his studios and some of his work.

Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Revolución No. 1608, San Angel (www.macg.inba.gob.mx/)

This museum has a permanent collection of first-rate Mexican artists, with numerous works by Rivera, Siqueiros and Orozco. Temporary exhibits are excellent also.

Museo de Arte Moderno, Chapultepec Park - Sec. 1 (www.conaculta.gob.mx/mam)

This museum contains an excellent collection of modern art focusing on the works of Mexican artists. Exhibits include Mexican painting, lithography, sculpture and photography.

Museo de Frida Kahlo, Londres 247, Coyoacán (http://www.museofridakahlo.org/)

Frida Kahlo was born here and lived with Diego Rivera off and on from 1929 until her death in 1954. Kahlo’s personality is reflected in the house, exemplified by the giant papier-mâché skeletons outside, the gloriously decorated kitchen and the bric-a-brac in her bedroom.

Museo de San Carlos, Puente de Alvarado 50, Centro Histórico (http://www.bellasartes.gob.mx/INBA/index.jsp)

Housed in a charming mansion that was designed by Manuel Tolsá, this museum contains a fine selection of European art, part of which was donated by the King of Spain in the 18th century.

Museo Dolores Olmedo, Ave. México 5843, Xochimilco (http://www.museodoloresolmedo.org.mx/)

The Olmedo museum has perhaps the biggest and most important Diego Rivera collection of all. It is a fascinating place, set in a peaceful 16th-century hacienda with large gardens. Dolores Olmedo, a wealthy socialite who still lives in part of the mansion, was a patron of Rivera and amassed a large collection of his art.

Museo Franz Mayer, Ave. Hidalgo 45

This building dates to the 16th century. Beautifully restored, it houses a vast collection of exquisite colonial-era art and rare items accumulated by Mayer and donated to the people of Mexico. This museum features mostly functional pieces, such as furniture, watches, trunks, utensils and altarpieces.

Museo José Luis Cuevas, Academia 13 (www.museojoseluiscuevas.com.mx/)

Opened in 1992, this museum is housed in a refurbished former convent. It holds a superb collection of contemporary art, as well as work by Mexico’s José Luis Cuevas, one of the country’s best-known contemporary artists. The sensational “La Giganta,” Cuevas’ eight-ton bronze sculpture, is on display in the central patio.

Museo Nacional de Antropología, Chapultepec Park - Sec.1 (www.mna.inah.gob.mx/)

This is one of the finest anthropological museums in the world and the most important in Mexico. The ground floor focuses on the native cultures and societies of Mexico before the Spanish conquest. The famous Aztec sun stone is displayed among the extraordinary collection of artwork from the indigenous population. The museum also provides information about how the descendents of these cultures live today.

Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares, Ave. Hidalgo 289, Coyoacán/San Angel (http://www.culturaspopulareseindigenas.gob.mx/museo.html)

This museum shows many diverse aspects of Mexican popular culture. It has a great show of clothing and handicrafts.

Museo Rufino Tamayo, Chapultepec Park - Sec.1 (www.museotamayo.org/)

This impressive building houses Tamayo’s fine collection of art, including paintings and sculptures by Picasso, Miró, and Warhol as well as works by the renowned Mexican muralists.

Museo Templo Mayor, Seminario 8 (www.templomayor.inah.gob.mx/)

Contains over 3,000 pieces unearthed from this site and from other sites in central Mexico. The centerpiece is an eight-ton disk discovered at the Templo Mayor depicting the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui.

The two-step and tintypes:
Kendrick’s cowboys at the Sierra Nevada
By Erica Hoelscher

Photography exhibit
Robb Kendrick
Thu, May 22–Fri, June 6
Mon–Fri, 11am–7pm

Lectures
Fri, May 23, 6pm
Fri, June 6, 6pm
Salon Galería
Casa de Sierra Nevada
Recreo 27

Casa de Sierra Nevada is proud to exhibit the latest work by award-winning photographer and San Miguel resident Robb Kendrick. The public is invited to view Kendrick’s photos during the two-week engagement and also to hear him talk about his unusual photographic techniques, which include the historic tintype process.

Kendrick, a native Texan, is best known for his work in National Geographic magazine. He has shot 17 feature stories for Geographic that have taken him to over 76 countries. On April 20 he was the subject of a feature story in the “Sunday Arts & Leisure” section of the New York Times, and he was recently interviewed on the NPR program Day to Day. He has given presentations at the Smithsonian Institute and is a regular instructor at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.

During his years traveling around the world Kendrick discovered a passion for making tintype portraits. Tintypes, popular 150 years ago, evoke a timeless, haunting beauty. The process is labor-intensive and very low-tech, resulting in one-of-a-kind images on metal plates. Kendrick uses no batteries, no digital camera, not even film. Instead, he plies his art with a wooden box camera, a portable darkroom and a lot of patience.

Still: Cowboys at the Start of the Twenty-First Century is Kendrick’s newest collection of 148 tintype portraits published by the University of Texas Press. Still focus on the lives of those drawn to the cowboying life—women as well as men—Anglos, Native Americans, African Americans and Mexican Americans.

The work exhibited at Casa de Sierra Nevada will be available for sale and includes photos from Kendrick’s books, tintypes of mummies in Guanajuato and other images from Mexico.

The exhibit is free, but attendees are encouraged to make a donation to Casa Hogar in lieu of an entrance fee. For more information call Casa de Sierra Nevada at 152-7040.

Erica Hoelscher is the publicist for Casa de Sierra Nevada in San Miguel.

The tintype process

The wet-plate process to fix an image on a thin iron plate named the melainotype (from melaino, Greek for dark or black) or ferrotype (from ferrum, Latin for iron), but later popularly called the tintype, was developed in Ohio in the 1850s. Though not immediately accepted by early photographers, the process had many advantages over earlier photographic processes. It was less expensive, easier and faster to produce than the silver-plated daguerreotype and much more durable than the glass-plated ambrotype. The tintype reached the peak of its popularity during the Civil War, but it continued to be used well into the second quarter of the 20th century.

The tintype process is both time-consuming and potentially lethal. A highly toxic and inflammable collodion solution of pyroxyline (nitrocellulose, commonly called guncotton), alcohol and ether is applied to the thin enameled (japanned) black iron plate immediate before exposure. After the collodion dries to a tacky surface, the plate is sensitized in a bath of silver nitrate, potassium iodide, nitric acid and distilled water. The plate is then lifted from the bath and allowed to drain briefly before being placed in a covered plate holder, known as a photographic frame.

Once the subject is set up, the photographer places the wet, sensitized plate in the camera, lifts the plate holder’s cover, removes the lens cap, and determines the correct timing for the exposure. Exposure times for tintypes are highly dependent on the amount of available light, from a few to several seconds, and necessitate the portrait subject’s remaining perfectly still. After the lens is capped, the exposed plate is closed off in the photographic frame, removed from the camera, and returned to the darkroom for the development stage.

The developing solution is a mixture of water, ferrous sulfate, and glacial acid. In the darkroom the photographer removes the plate from the photographic frame, places the plate in a tray containing the developing solution, and rocks it. After development, the plate is thoroughly washed with water and placed in a tray of fixing solution that makes the image permanent by removing the unexposed silver. Another highly toxic chemical solution, potassium cyanide, is used for the final fixing step. The plate is then dried, and often coated with varnish to preserve the image.

The tintype was important not only in the history of photography but also in the context of American society. Since it was an inexpensive, easily produced and durable form of photography, it allowed everyone, regardless of social status, to immortalize images. For the first time in American history, individuals from the lower classes and rural parts of the country could participate in self- and family portraiture, which, up until that time, had been the exclusive privilege of those wealthy enough to hire a painter or visit a private photography studio.