Award Winners

Next door to the University of Mexico museum, is yet another museum, this one an art gallery operated by the Secretariat of the Treasury.  In colonial times it was the Palace of the Archbishop of Mexico City.

One of the courtyards of the former palace

In the stairwell of the building is a mural done in 1952 by the painter José Gordillo Camacho.  The painting, entitled "Song to the Heroes", shows a worker surrounded by the tools of modern technology and holding a cloak in the colors of the Mexican flag.  Below are Mexican heroes from the pre-Hispanic era to the 20th century. 

The museum usually hosts exhibits of contemporary art, but when I visited here last Thursday there was something of greater interest to me...  the winners of the 47th National Contest of Popular Art.  Here are a few of the award winning entries that were on display.

A Tree of Life depicting The Creation

by Oscar Daniel Soteno Díaz

2nd prize in the category of pottery and ceramics

A picture done in beads

by Celestino González Carrillo

3rd prize in the category of popular painting

 

A marimba hand-crafted from cedar and other woods

by Adony Ismael León Girón

3rd prize in musical instruments

"Quexquémetl" (poncho-like garment worn by indigenous women in Mexico)

by Hilaria Gómez Márquez

2nd place in textiles

Lacquered wooden carving depicting native artisans at work

by Doroteo Zeferino Romano

1st place in lacquerware 

Punch bowl with portable heater

by Dominga Villegas Peña

1st prize in pottery and ceramics

Wooden mask of an old man

by Leopoldo Aguilar Rodríguez

1st prize in masks

Ink drawing on "amate" (bark) paper

by José Javier Martínez Lorenzo

1st prize in popular painting

The detail of the work is amazing.