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拍品专文
Mujer indígena con elotes (1926) was executed during one of the least studied periods of the renowned muralist Diego Rivera. This elusive period encompasses the years from Rivera's arrival in Mexico in 1921 (after a long stay of almost 14 years in Europe) until 1927; the year he departs for Moscow to join the celebrations of the Tenth Anniversary of the October Revolution. During this time, Rivera's painting journeys from the Parisian vanguard to the true definition of his Mexican style. Hence the significance of Mujer indígena con elotes, a picture that illustrates the pinnacle of the artist's explorations of his native indigenous culture into a formal and conceptual language -an aesthetic acquired after his trips to the Yucatan Peninsula and the Tehuantepec Itzmus (Oaxaca).
The new subject matter was immediately imprinted onto the frescoes Rivera was working on at the Secretaría de Educación Pública in Mexico City. Likewise, Mujer vendiendo elotes, is iconographically linked to Mujer con mazorcas (1926-1927) an image painted for the wall of the lower frieze in the former chapel of the Escuela Nacional de Agricultura at Chapingo. In both these cases, Rivera deals with the simplification of the human form into volumetric shapes that imitate the pre-Columbian sculpture aesthetic. Above all, these paintings regain a capacity for synthesis and volumetric expressionism.
Mujer vendiendo elotes is slightly larger than a preceding drawing titled Mujer indígena con elotes (1926), a naturalistic study of an indigenous woman with corn currently in the permanent collection of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Next to this drawing, the oil surpasses in eloquence, chromatic richness and formal compositional structure. Virtues no doubt that Diego Rivera pondered for his mural projects of the twenties and in few oils, including the one presently being offered for auction at Christie's.
Luis Martín Lozano
We are grateful to Prof. Luis-Martín Lozano for his assistance in cataloguing the present painting.
The new subject matter was immediately imprinted onto the frescoes Rivera was working on at the Secretaría de Educación Pública in Mexico City. Likewise, Mujer vendiendo elotes, is iconographically linked to Mujer con mazorcas (1926-1927) an image painted for the wall of the lower frieze in the former chapel of the Escuela Nacional de Agricultura at Chapingo. In both these cases, Rivera deals with the simplification of the human form into volumetric shapes that imitate the pre-Columbian sculpture aesthetic. Above all, these paintings regain a capacity for synthesis and volumetric expressionism.
Mujer vendiendo elotes is slightly larger than a preceding drawing titled Mujer indígena con elotes (1926), a naturalistic study of an indigenous woman with corn currently in the permanent collection of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Next to this drawing, the oil surpasses in eloquence, chromatic richness and formal compositional structure. Virtues no doubt that Diego Rivera pondered for his mural projects of the twenties and in few oils, including the one presently being offered for auction at Christie's.
Luis Martín Lozano
We are grateful to Prof. Luis-Martín Lozano for his assistance in cataloguing the present painting.