.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Across a prolific career that stretched from the 1910s to the 1980s, Carlos Mérida was continually and profoundly inspired by the indigenous cultures of Mexico and his native Guatemala. Yet he was never interested in archaeological or folkloric recreations, and he rejected Diego Rivera's almost documentary obsession with details and historic events (seen, for example, in his murals in the National Palace). Instead, Mérida explored more general themes, like myth and dance, using a wide range of avant-garde styles, from Cubism and Surrealism to biomorphic abstraction.
This Self-Portrait was first exhibited at Mexico City's Galería de Arte Mexicano in 1945, where it was included in a series of images that Mérida called "Visual digressions on an Aztec theme." The artist often worked in similar thematic series, like his "Variations on a Maya Theme" of the late 1930s. Despite the reference to Aztec culture, however, the abstract forms and vibrant colors of this painting are actually more closely related to his 1943 portfolio of 10 color lithographs based on the Quiché Maya book of creation known as the Popol Vuh (Estampas del Popol-Vuh). The head and small hand of the principal figure, the large hand (or foot), the snake and the two blue-eyed birds are all similar to details seen in the lithographs. The yellow form in the center of the picture is ambiguous, though it also appears in his earlier Creation (1939, private collection).
This painting is an important assertion of both personal and artistic identity. Mérida places himself within the vaguely pre-Columbian framework, floating in a dream-like state between the earth (the snake) and the heavens (the birds). Though the elements may be loosely derived from ancient manuscripts, the energetic brushwork and biomorphic forms (perhaps inspired by Hans Arp) draw explicitly from European modernism, resulting in a perfect visual and cultural synthesis.
James Oles
September 2003
This Self-Portrait was first exhibited at Mexico City's Galería de Arte Mexicano in 1945, where it was included in a series of images that Mérida called "Visual digressions on an Aztec theme." The artist often worked in similar thematic series, like his "Variations on a Maya Theme" of the late 1930s. Despite the reference to Aztec culture, however, the abstract forms and vibrant colors of this painting are actually more closely related to his 1943 portfolio of 10 color lithographs based on the Quiché Maya book of creation known as the Popol Vuh (Estampas del Popol-Vuh). The head and small hand of the principal figure, the large hand (or foot), the snake and the two blue-eyed birds are all similar to details seen in the lithographs. The yellow form in the center of the picture is ambiguous, though it also appears in his earlier Creation (1939, private collection).
This painting is an important assertion of both personal and artistic identity. Mérida places himself within the vaguely pre-Columbian framework, floating in a dream-like state between the earth (the snake) and the heavens (the birds). Though the elements may be loosely derived from ancient manuscripts, the energetic brushwork and biomorphic forms (perhaps inspired by Hans Arp) draw explicitly from European modernism, resulting in a perfect visual and cultural synthesis.
James Oles
September 2003