|
WASHINGTON, DC.- An exhibition of important cubist works by
renowned Mexican
modernist Diego Rivera will open at the National Gallery of
Art, Washington,
D.C., in spring 2004. On view April 4 through July 25, 2004,
The Cubist
Paintings of Diego Rivera: Memory, Politics, Place will
celebrate a significant
but little-known Rivera painting of 1915, No. 9, Nature Morte
Espagnole (No. 9,
Spanish Still Life), a recent gift to the National Gallery
from the estate of
Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham.
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in
collaboration with the
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, the exhibition will
coincide with the
Gallery’s showing of the Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya. The
Rivera
exhibition will then travel to the Museo de Arte Moderno in
Mexico City, where
it will be on view from September 19, 2004, through January
16, 2005.
"We are pleased to be working with the Museo de Arte Moderno
to bring a
little-known aspect of Rivera’s work to the public in both of
our countries,"
said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art.
"We are also very
grateful to Target for its continuing support of exhibitions
at the National
Gallery."
Exhibition support—This exhibition is proudly sponsored by
Target Stores as
part of its commitment to arts and education. Target
previously sponsored the
exhibition Frederic Remington: The Color of Night (2003).
"Supporting the arts is important to Target and we are pleased
to continue our
partnership with the National Gallery of Art through our
sponsorship of the
Diego Rivera exhibition," said Laysha Ward, vice president,
community relations,
Target Corporation. "Exposure to the arts allows people to
experience different
cultures, broaden their points of view and expand their
creative thinking, which
all help in building stronger communities."
The Exhibition—Rivera’s work has been studied and shown in
depth, yet his
cubist period remains a less understood aspect of his career.
The Cubist
Paintings of Diego Rivera will include some 20 works that
demonstrate his
distinctive approach to synthetic cubism-his use of complex
structures of
transparent planes, with a particular emphasis on sensory and
memory
association.
The exhibition will explore the intersection of history and
the avant-garde at a
key moment in the artist’s development. The selection
emphasizes the years
1914 and 1915, when Rivera was working in France and Spain.
These works also
illuminate the artist’s deep engagement with themes of
identity and place
during a period that coincided not only with World War I but
also with the most
active period of the Mexican Revolution.
Many of the works in the exhibition, such as Zapatista
Landscape (1915),
incorporate objects that serve as emblems of Mexican identity:
sarapes, petates
(straw mats), an equipal (reed chair), and guajes (peasant
gourds). The
inclusion of Mexican motifs and Rivera’s frequent use of the
colors of the
Mexican flag present a souvenir of his native land from afar,
filled with
revolutionary sympathy, nostalgia, and longing.
In other key works in the exhibition, Rivera explored
evocative links between
objects, people, and places. Among them are such works as
Eiffel Tower (1914),
with emotionally charged references to the cities Rivera
inhabited, and
portraits of figures he associated with these cities,
including his Portrait of
Martín Luis Guzmán (1915). Together these paintings represent
Rivera’s finest
cubist work and offer important meditations on self-identity
and nationalism.
Curators- The exhibition is organized by Leah Dickerman,
associate curator,
modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art, in
consultation with
Luis-Martín Lozano, director, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico
City. The
exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated
brochure.
(from Art Daily)
|
