On Saturday, February 16, 2020, The Dallas Museum of Art will present Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art. The exhibition will explore representations of women in Mexican Modernism and is highlighted by the loan of the monumental painting Flores Mexicanas by Alfredo Ramos Martínez to the DMA from the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis. Recently rediscovered, Flores Mexicanas is being exhibited for only the second time in nearly a century.
Alfredo Ramos Martínez moved from Mexico City to Los Angeles in 1929. The exhibition contrasts the romantic portraits of society debutants that Martínez painted in his native country with the stylized scenes of rural life in Mexico that were popular with his Hollywood patrons. The exhibition’s title painting, Flores Mexicanas, is the last painting Ramos Martínez completed before moving to California.
The large-scale work depicts four sumptuously dressed women in an idyllic landscape, surrounded by luscious flowers, and has been interpreted as a representation of Mexico’s diverse racial heritage as well as an allegory of the four seasons. Unearthed from the Charles Lindbergh catalogs at the Missouri Historical Society, Flores Mexicanas went on view this past summer for the first time in 87 years at the Missouri History Museum. Originally the painting was a wedding present to aviators Anne and Charles Lindbergh from then-Mexican President Emilio Portes Gil in 1929, intended to impress the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Dwight Morrow, a recent J.P. Morgan & Company partner, and Anne’s father.
Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Portrait of Nahui Olin, c. 1915, © Arturo Piera and The Alfredo Ramos Martínez Research Project, reproduced by permission Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Mancacoyota, 1930, Colección Andrés Blaisten, Mexico. © The Alfredo Ramos Martínez Research Project, reproduced by permission
Additionally, the exhibition pairs two galleries: one dedicated to the work of Ramos Martínez, one of the fathers of Mexican Modernism, and an accompanying gallery of more than 25 paintings, works on paper, and textiles by other renowned artists working in Mexico during the first half of the 20th century.
Open to the public on February 16 and included in free general admission, the exhibition provides visitors the opportunity to explore the meanings behind depictions of women created during a transformative period in Mexican history.
Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art also marks the inaugural presentation by Dr. Mark A. Castro, the DMA’s first Jorge Baldor Curator of Latin American Art. The curatorial position was established in 2019 as part of an expanded commitment to researching, showing, and acquiring art from Latin America.
“We’re incredibly excited to build a story around this beautiful masterpiece by Ramos Martínez and the way in which it becomes a vehicle for exploring issues of gender in modern Mexican art,” said Dr. Agustín Arteaga, the DMA’s Eugene McDermott Director. “The painting’s fascinating history also gives us a chance to highlight the influence of Ramos Martínez on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border and contribute to important contemporary conversations about the fluidity of that border through the lens of art.”
Curator Dr. Castro adds of his inaugural exhibition at the DMA, “Alfredo Ramos Martínez was among the most versatile artists of his day and Flores Mexicanas is one of his crowning achievements. He worked on the painting for nearly fifteen years, beginning it during the Mexican Civil War. In many ways, it feels like an ode to a period in his life, and in the history of his country, that was ending.”
The adjacent gallery will feature a selection of works by some of Mexico’s most celebrated Modern artists, including paintings by María Izquierdo and Diego Rivera and works on paper by Frida Kahlo, Francisco Dosamantes, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. In some works, images of women are used to address common themes in Mexican post-revolutionary art, including politics, indigeneity, labor, and rural life. At the same time, self-portraits and other works by women artists assert the role of the new modern woman in Mexico and her contributions to the creation of Mexico’s new national identity.
Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art will be on view beginning February 16, 2020, through September 20, 2020.