Exhibition: The Prehispanic and the Modern.
Art, Architecture and Nationalism in Porfirian and Revolutionary Mexico.
The Anza Falco Museum of Design presents "The Prehispanic and the Modern," an exhibition which reviews one of the most important art movements developed in Mexico from the late nineteenth to mid twentieth-century. During this remarkable period architectural forms and ornamentation elements from Mesoamerican cultures were incorporated into the new trends of twentieth-century modernism. This syncretism would help define Mexico’s new identity for the rest of the world while rescuing its cultural legacy and determining its future position in the arts.
The Mexican Pavilion at the International Fair, held in Paris in 1889 and designed by Antonio M. Anza, became the precursor of this movement and has become an essential icon for any discussion of National identity in contemporary Mexico. The building started a tendency that would last more than 60 years, a period that was characterized by an intense debate. The movement, originally developed in architecture, would have a major influence on the rest of the arts, such as painting, sculpture, graphic design and muralism. In the 1920s, this trend, based on historic recovery and integration, would significantly influence the work of architects like Frank Lloyd Wright.
The exhibition features an analytical description which identifies four essential buildings. It illustrates the origins and development of the "Neo-prehispanic" and the identification of its central figures. The analysis is based on important contributions from Jorge Reynoso Pohlenz, Gabriel Esquivel, Jorge Capetillo Ponce, Rafael Longoria and Mauricio Rodriguez Anza whose work offers a new perspective into an ongoing twenty-first- century which will be traduced into a new appreciation of this important cultural period. The project is enriched by the valuable photographic work of Juan San Juan Rebollar which was produced especially for this exhibition.
November 10, 2010 – January 28, 2011
3 Allen Center
333 Clay St. Houston
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