Fresh and prepared for the future, the Mexican Art Gallery turns 90

The Mexican Art Gallery, whose work of promoting and disseminating national creators has been fundamental for the cultural and artistic life of the country, can not only boast of being the first to be established in Mexico City; founded in 1935, it is also a rare case in the world for its long existence. Neither more nor less than a whopping 90 years old, which he will turn on March 7th.

Such an event, they anticipate The Day Mariana Pérez Amor and Alejandra Yturbe, its directors for almost half a century, will be celebrated by not throwing out the house through the windowas happened on its fiftieth anniversary, but with a great program of four exhibitions that will be held throughout this year, the first being a historical one, which will be inaugurated on February 4.

Even without a defined title, such an exhibition will be made up of works by artists that the gallery has managed, not specifically in chronological order, but of importance and weight in Mexican artwith a timeline that will span from 1940 to 2000 and will include different stages and movements, from the Mexican School of Painting, surrealism and the great masters to the Rupture, Neo-Mexicanism and Abstraction.

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Antonio Ruiz, Gunther Gerzso, Leonora Carrington, María Izquierdo, Rufino Tamayo, Ángel Zárraga, Joy Laville, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, Alfredo Castañeda and Jan Hendrix will be some of the creators included.

I am impressed that the gallery reaches its 90th anniversary; It’s already a long story. It seems almost miraculous to me in a country like this that we are still workingsays Mariana Pérez Amor, daughter of the promoter and gallery owner Inés Amor (1912-1980), founder of this establishment that, in her opinion, saw the light of day at a time when Mexican art was not yet highly valued.

In Mexico, collectors in the 1930s did not like Mexican art, but European art; It even scared them. So when the gallery opened, there were very few Mexican collectors who understood and liked it. As time went by, that changed. With the Second World War, many collectors from our country began to come and went crazy with Mexican art.highlights.

For Alejandra Yturbe, this anniversary is a source of deep satisfaction, because in this long journey they have been able to witness how several gallerist friends have had to close due to age and because there is no one to take the reins of their projects.

It is very rare in the world for a gallery to turn 90 years old. For a long time I have wondered what I would have done with myself if I had not worked with Inés Amor and learned the importance of art, not business.he claims.

That has been the big secret. It’s not about how Inés Amor made money, but how she thought she could transcend Mexican art; She could not imagine the importance that it has now as a woman in those years to have left Mexico what is in this gallery. That was key in Inés Amor’s life, and it is what Mariana and I learned from her.

Adaptability

One of the great successes of this cultural and artistic project, according to its directors, has been having the ability throughout its existence to transform and adapt to new movements, currents and circumstances in art.

Otherwise we would not exist, because we are evolution; Either you catch up or you don’t exist. Understanding the young world is always basicsays Alejandra Yturbe, who says that she and Mariana Pérez took a diploma at the Universidad Iberoamericana 25 years ago to understand what was happening and what was coming in terms of art on a planetary scale.

“At that time, we had seen how the situation of art in the world was changing; We went to museums, gallery exhibitions and fairs. Thus we experience palpably how art has changed. That basis that we had of understanding art in the past has helped us to understand what is happening now.

Not everything that is happening is to be described as unintelligible, or that we don’t like it, or that it is rubbish. We must understand that today’s artistic proposals, as has always happened in reality, are with respect to the world we are living in.

According to both gallery owners, the international offering at this time is impressive, not only in plastic arts, but also in music, cinema and in general all expressions of art and culture:

Now, what is going to happen with all of this in the future? Let’s see, because not everything is going to last, there are many ephemeral things. The world today is global to an impressive degree and is moving faster than we can control. So, artists also, in some way, have that anxiety of arriving because, if not, whoever comes behind will eat them. We are experiencing an impressive evolution.

With more than 2,500 national and international exhibitions organized in its 90 years, the Mexican Art Gallery remains fresh and current while preparing for the future, also thanks to the fact that the third generation of gallery owners now participates in its destinations, with Juan Pérez Figueroa and Rafael Yturbe, as well as Patricia Torres, who has been responsible for it for a quarter of a century.

Of course: there is much to celebrate. It is a great privilege to come to work every day and have this place embrace us. There is no better celebration than leaving in part this contribution of what for us were and are the important artists in Mexicoemphasize Mariana Pérez Amor and Alejandra Yturbe.

Like Inés Amor, our line has been to appreciate art, try to spread it, promote it and have the satisfaction that we have done it. The world will say whether it is good or bad, and time will determine us, but making an effort and leaving what will be a memory, an imprint of Mexican art, does give us a lot of satisfaction..

The work of this gallery is described as fundamental for the cultural and artistic life of the country, since in that space the work of artists such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Miguel Covarrubias, Rufino Tamayo, Frida Kahlo and María Izquierdo, among many others, in addition to currently possessing one of the most important archives of Mexican and Latin American art in the world.