Mexico 1900-1950

 

On Saturday morning I mentioned to my husband that the Dallas Museum of Art had an exhibit of Mexican artists that I really wanted to see. “It’ll be here through July,” I told him, “so let’s actually put a date on the calendar to get a babysitter and go see it before it’s gone.”

“Why don’t we go right now?” he asked.

I pointed at the squirming toddler in his arms. “Because this little dude isn’t going to quietly look at paintings,” I replied.

“Well, let’s go to the museum, and I’ll hang out with little O in the children’s area or the park out front while you go through the exhibit. I don’t want you to miss it, and we always seem to run out of time.”

Wait…really? You mean, SURPRISE ART DAY??

YIPPEE!

I used to be a member of the DMA. I used to go there quite often even though I lived far from downtown. Since I became a mom those visits have become very rare, but I still get a rush of excitement every time I walk in and see Dale Chihuly’s glass installation in the grand front window.

Of course I’m a fan of Frida Kahlo’s intricate and fascinating self-portraits. I was lucky to see an entire exhibit of her work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art a few years ago. The DMA exhibit has several of her paintings, but she is not the focus of the show. It is a broad, rather than deep collection, featuring many artists who were working in Mexico in the first half of the twentieth century. This includes a formidable group of Surrealist painters who fled to Mexico before and during World War II.

I made a quick list on my phone of artists whose work I liked and wanted to see more of: Angel Zarraga, Saturnino Herran, Ramon Cano Manilla, Nahui Olin, Roberto Montenegro, Amado de la Cueva, Juan O’Gorman, and Leonora Carrington. I’m including a few photos I snapped as I’m sure I don’t have the rights to reproduce the postcards I bought.

For any one living in or traveling to Dallas in the next few months, try to make time to see this exhibit. This is the only place in the United States it will be shown. For me, just taking a couple of hours on a Saturday to look at art was so inspiring and renewing! I’m vowing to make time for these things more often. Sometimes I need to remind myself that I’m a better mama to that squirming toddler when I feed my soul with good things that re-energize me
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