Another Museum

Last month I visited yet another one of Mexico City's museums.  This one, the Carrillo Gil Museum of Art, was one that I had never visited before.  The museum was established by Alvar Carrillo Gil, a prominent pediatrician.  He began collecting art in the 1930s, and by the time of his death, his had amassed a collection of over 1400 pieces.  In 1969 he hired an architect to design a building to house his collection which he transferred to the Mexican government.  The museum was inaugurated in 1974 shortly after his death.

The museum has frequent exhibits of contemporary art (which as you know is not my cup of tea), but in honor of the museum's 50th anniversary, there is a retrospective exhibit which draws from the doctor's collection.

Carrillo Gil became good friends with José Clemente Orozco, David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera, the "Big Three" of Mexican muralism.  In addition to their murals, all three did many smaller pieces.  The doctor's collection is possibly the world's largest collection of works by Orozco and Siqueiros.

The very first work that Carrillo Gil purchased was this drawing by Orozco which the doctor himself named "La Chole"  (slang for "the cool girl").  It satirizes women's fashions of the early 20th century.

Here are more works by Orozco which the doctor subsequently acquired for his collection...

Portrait of the collector's wife, Carmen Tejera de Carrillo Gil

1944

"Los Teules"

1947

"Teules" is an Aztec word for "gods" which they used to refer to the Spanish conquerors.

"Combat"

1928

While many artists glorified the Mexican Revolution, Orozco portrayed the horror and human suffering of war.

"Three Generations"

1929

 

"War"

1928

"The Common Grave"

1928

"Pomade and Perfume"

1946

"Tourists and Aztecs"1935

"Don Juan"

1945

"Prometheus"

1944

"Pedregal"

1947

"Landscape of Spikes"

1948

"Queensboro Bridge"

1928

Orozco lived and worked for a number of years in the United States.

"The Dead"

1932

After the stock market crash, he portrayed New York City as a mechanism of destruction.

"Mexican Town"

1930

"Victory"

1944

"Beggars"

1941

"The White House"

1928

In the next post we'll look at some works by Siqueiros and Rivera at the Carrillo Gil Museum.