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27/4/2002

Twentieth-Century Mexican Art

El Museo del Barrio, New York

FRIDA KAHLO, DIEGO RIVERA, AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY MEXICAN ART: THE JACQUES AND NATASHA GELMAN COLLECTION

El Museo del Barrio, New York's premiere Latino and Latin American cultural institution, will host the only East Coast presentation of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Twentieth-Century Mexican Art: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Featuring more than 100 of the most significant examples of Mexican Modernism, this nationally touring exhibition explores the artistic vigor and striking imagery that emerged from the politically-charged social and cultural landscape of Mexico between the 1910s and 1950s. Included in the exhibition are rarely viewed pieces by painter Frida Kahlo and muralist Diego Rivera. The exhibition will be on view at El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street, from April 28 through September 8, 2002.

A public celebration will be held at El Museo on Sunday, April 28 from 2 pm to 5 pm, during which time free admission will be offered.

The paintings, drawings and photographs on view in Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Twentieth-Century Mexican Art are drawn from the celebrated collection of the late cinematic mogul Jacques Gelman and his wife, Natasha, who moved to Mexico City in the early 1940s and amassed a collection admired for its breadth and quality. The exhibition features the best of the Gelman collection, with outstanding works by a broad range of artists. Each piece offers a glimpse into pre- and post-Revolutionary Mexican life and culture while also exploring the artists' personal struggles and triumphs. In addition to major oils by Kahlo and Rivera, the exhibition also features studies for murals by José Clemente Orozco and works by David Alfaro Siqueiros and paintings by Surrealists Maria Izquierdo and Leonora Carrington.

The exhibition has attracted record numbers of viewers at the Dallas Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and the Phoenix Art Museum. Following its presentation at El Museo del Barrio, the exhibition will travel to the Seattle Art Museum.

Major funding for the exhibition is provided by Vivendi Universal, Goya Foods, and JPMorgan Chase.

"El Museo del Barrio is pleased to present this landmark exhibition that will bring Mexican masterworks to the people of New York and the entire East Coast," says Susana Torruella Leval, Director of El Museo del Barrio. "In so doing, El Museo is making its own contribution to rebuilding New York City as the cultural capital of the world. We also thus reaffirm our mission of exploring and celebrating - with people of all backgrounds - the diversity and richness of Latin American and Caribbean art and culture."

"This exhibition examines social, political and cultural developments in Mexico over a period of 50 years. Through the exhibition and accompanying programs, we hope to shed light on an exciting period in the history of this pivotal Latin American nation and celebrate the works of these master artists," comments Tony Bechara, Board Chair, El Museo del Barrio.

Exhibition Highlights
Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Twentieth-Century Mexican Art: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection represents the broad range of artistic developments and cultural forces influencing the development of Mexican Modernism during the last century. Periods addressed in the exhibition span from early experiments with European Cubism and Surrealism and post-revolutionary efforts to develop an indigenous Mexican aesthetic, to the diverse styles and techniques of post-World War II abstraction and realism.

The exhibition at El Museo del Barrio will include more than 100 works, all created by masters of Mexican art. Highlights include 10 exquisite paintings by Kahlo, including self-portraits, still lives and portraits of both Mrs. Gelman and Diego Rivera. Of particular interest are rarely seen works such as Autorretrato con collar (Self-Portrait with Necklace, 1953), a rendering of the artist as a young woman, and Diego en mi pensamiento (Diego on My Mind, 1943), in which her husband, Diego Rivera, is superimposed on her forehead.
Additionally, nine works by Rivera will be exhibited, including Ultima hora (The Last Hour, 1915), created while the artist lived in Paris and experimented with the Cubism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Rivera is also represented in the exhibition by a sumptuous portrait of Natasha Gelman reclining amidst lilies, entitled, Retrato de la Señora Natasha Gelman (Portrait of Mrs. Natasha Gelman, 1943).

Other highlights of the exhibition include landscapes by Roberto Montenegro; evocative still lives of Juan Soriano; semi-abstract paintings by Carlos Mérida and Gunther Gerzso; images by María Izquierdo that celebrate Mexican traditions; socially charged scenes of José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros; and whimsical, colorful figures of Rufino Tamayo.

Public Programs
A full schedule of educational programs that promote understanding and dialogue about Mexican art and culture will accompany the exhibition. Highlights include Cinco de Mayo Family Day, an all-day open house for families and community participants on Sunday, May 5 in celebration of the most important national holiday in Mexico. The event will feature arts and crafts projects for children, musical performances and the debut screening of a new documentary film about Mexican traditional culture, The Sentinels of the Earth, by award-winning anthropologist and filmmaker Judith Gleason. On Saturday, May 11, El Museo will host Frida! a lecture conducted by Hayden Herrera, a leading Kahlo scholar and author who introduced the artist to U.S. audiences with a groundbreaking biography.

In addition, El Museo is launching a film and concert series, Summer Nights at El Museo. Sponsored by JPMorgan Chase, Summer Nights at El Museo will offer, on alternating Thursdays from June 6 through September 5, free weekly screenings of Mexican films in El Museo's Teatro Heckscher and live music with Latin bands in El Museo's courtyard.

Bilingual guided tours will be available as well as teacher workshops and a series of educational programs for school children in grades K through 12. El Museo's Taller Juvenil art workshop and learning center will also offer hands-on activities for young museumgoers.

The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection
Jacques and Natasha Gelman saw art as an essential means to connect with their time and culture. The collection reflects their personal tastes and passion for Mexican art.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1909, Jacques Gelman founded film distribution companies in France and Mexico. His fortune was established when he began to represent the popular Mexican comic actor Mario Moreno, best known as "Cantinflas." In 1941, he married Natasha Zahalka, a Czech immigrant from Moravia, and the couple settled in Mexico City. It was there that they began to assemble extraordinary collections of European and Mexican modern art. The couple also collected important Pre-Columbian art and contemporary European master works. The Gelmans eventually donated their European paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

After Jacques Gelman's death in 1986, Natasha Gelman continued to collect contemporary works until her death in 1998. The Gelman Estate retained and continues to add to the outstanding Mexican collection.

Exhibition Sponsors and Organizers
Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Twentieth-Century Mexican Art: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and the Dallas Museum of Art, in collaboration with curator Robert Littman, director of the Vergel Foundation. The exhibition is presented courtesy of The Vergel Foundation, New York, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) and the Secretariá de Relaciones Exteriores de México.

Major funding for the New York presentation of the exhibition has been provided by Vivendi Universal, Goya Foods, and JPMorgan Chase. Additional support provided by: Univision Communications Inc., Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Budweiser, Conill " Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Estrellita & Daniel Brodsky, Joseph & Carmen Ana Unanue, Beth & Lee Davis, Hispanic Federation, Mex-Am Cultural Foundation, Inc., GEICO, LEF Foundation, Adam Bartos, Tony Bechara, Agnes Gund & Daniel Shapiro, and Andy Unanue. Special thanks to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its support.

About El Museo del Barrio
Heralded by The New York Times as "an institution in its ascendancy," El Museo del Barrio was founded in 1969 by a group of Puerto Rican educators, artists, parents and community activists in East Harlem's Spanish-speaking El Barrio, the neighborhood that extends from 96th Street to the Harlem River and from Fifth Avenue to the East River on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Since then, El Museo del Barrio has evolved into New York's leading Latino cultural institution, having expanded its mission to represent the diversity of art and culture in the Caribbean and Latin America. As the only museum in New York City that specializes in representing these cultures, El Museo del Barrio continues to have a significant impact on the cultural life of New York City and is now a major stop on Manhattan's Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue.

El Museo del Barrio thrives on the sustained excellence of its collections, exhibitions and public programming. El Museo's varied permanent collection of 8,000 objects of Caribbean and Latin American art includes pre-Columbian Taino artifacts, traditional arts, twentieth-century prints, drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations, as well as photography, documentary films and video. El Museo del Barrio serves as a bridge and catalyst between the Latino population, their diverse cultural heritage, and the rich artistic offerings of New York City.

The mission of El Museo del Barrio is to present and preserve the cultural heritage of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States.

Museum hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 11am to 5 pm. Thursday, 5 to 9 pm.

Gelman exhibition admission: $7 adults; $3 students and seniors; members and children under 12 accompanied by an adult enter free. Free admission from 5 - 9 pm on Thursdays, June 6 - September 5.
Free of charge: Members and children ages 12 and under

El Museo del Barrio is located at 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street and may be reached by subway: #6 to 103rd Street Station; or by bus: M1, M3, M4 on Madison and Fifth Avenues to 104th Street; local cross-town service between Yorkville or East Harlem and the Upper West Side in Manhattan M96 and M106 or M2.

Image: Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait with Monkeys, 1943 Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 63 cm Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera images © 2002 Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust. Av. Cinco de Mayo No. 2, Col. Centro, Del. Cuauhtémoc, 06059, México, D.F. Reproducción autorizada por el Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura.

El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street - New York

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