Colecciones Mexicanas en The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Colecciones Mexicanas en The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Americans had been fascinated by Mexican art since the 1920s

many important exhibitions of modern art from Mexico were organized in museums around the United Status. One reason for the surge in interest was that the outbreak of the war prevented American art collectors from tapping into the European market; as a result, many turned their attentions to Latin America, especially to Mexico.

Building on an existing strength in Mexican colonial art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Henry Clifford set out to create an

equally distinguished modern Mexican collection .

Mac Kinley Helm & Henry Clifford played a significant role as friend, collector, and promoter of Cantú's work throughout the 1940s.

Clifford was one of the most energetic advocates of modern Mexican art in the United States during the late 1930s and into the war years, a time when interest in this field was at an all-time high.In a letter to Inés Amor dated June 6, 1945, he stated, "Bit by bit I am building up a Mexican group and having two special galleries built and painted to receive them." Ultimately he succeeded in creating a strong corpus of modern Mexican paintings that includes excellent examples by most of the well-known artists of that period ( Carlos Merida, Federico Cantú , Rufino Tamayo , Juan Soriano , Jesús Guerrero Galván , Diego Rivera , Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco , Guillermo Meza, Francisco Zúñiga , Luis Ortiz Monasterio).

Triumph of Death (1938) de Federico Cantú

La exposición Frida Kahlo fortalece el compromiso del Museo de Arte de Filadelfia de coleccionar y exponer arte latinoamericano, especialmente el mexicano. Adicional a esta exposición estará Fragile Demon: Juan Soriano in Mexico, 1935-1950, una exposición pequeña y centrada que muestra la obra temprana de otro artista mexicano modernista. En el 2006, el Museo organizo dos exposiciones de arte latinoamericano con giras: Treasures, Tesoros, Tesouros: The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820 y A Revolution in the Graphic Arts: Mexico and Modern Printmaking 1920-1950.

Las magnificas colecciones de arte mexicano del Museo de Arte de Filadelfia, el cual abarca desde esculturas Pre-Colombinas hasta pinturas modernistas mexicanas, ofrece un contexto extenso para la exposición de Frida Kahlo. Algunas de las obras modernistas mexicanas en la colección permanente incluyen importantes pinturas como The Mad Dog (1943) de Rufino Tamayo, War (1939) de David Alfaro Siqueiros, Bicycle Race (1938) de Antonio Ruiz, Triumph of Death (1938) de Federico Cantú y dos frescos portatiles Liberation of the Peon y Sugar Cane (los dos de 1931) de Diego Rivera.

El Museo también alberga un numero significativo de obras de épocas colonial y pre-colonial, tales como las pinturas coloniales de la Colección Robert H. Lamborn, esculturas precolombinas y retablos mexicanos de la Colección Louise and Walter Arensberg y una selección de cerámicas del siglo XVII de Puebla de los Angeles coleccionada por Edwin AtLee Barber. Algunas de estas obras serán mostradas durante las fechas de la exposición.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States, showcasing more than 2,000 years of exceptional human creativity in masterpieces of painting, sculpture, works on paper, decorative arts and architectural settings from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States.