With music and applause they say goodbye to María Lagunes in her posthumous tribute in Fine Arts

The painter and sculptor María Lagunes (1922-2024) was farewell with applause and music in the posthumous tribute that was paid to her yesterday at the Palace of Fine Arts, the venue where on August 12 she received her last recognition: the Fine Gold Medal Arts in Visual Arts.

The ceremony, held in the main lobby of the country’s largest cultural venue, was led by the head of the federal Ministry of Culture (SC), Claudia Curiel de Icaza, in what was her first public appearance since taking office.

In his speech, Curiel de Icaza recalled the life of the Veracruz artist and defined her as brave and creativewhose first passion was music. He mentioned that María Lagunes had teachers at the San Carlos Academy of the stature of Arturo García Bustos, Francisco Dosamantes, Tomás Chávez Morado, Francisco Zúñiga, Juan Soriano and Antonio Rodríguez Luna, with whom she learned about lithography, etching and sculpture.

When reading Lagunes’ profile, the official highlighted that in 2005 she received the Silver Medal for 35 years of academic services at the Faculty of Architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

In this venue, where Lagunes received the Fine Arts Gold Medal, today we say goodbye to her with all the honors she deserves, and we want to give a big brotherly and loving hug to her daughters, Silvia and Maya, and to all her family and friends. Rest in peace, teacher and artist María Lagunesconcluded Claudia Curiel.

On behalf of the family, Silvia Segarra Lagunes, daughter of the sculptor, thanked the expressions of affection, as well as the posthumous tribute. “It is difficult for me to talk about María Lagunes, trying to stay at a distance, but I think I can say that she was a great artist and a great person, with tireless and endless work, who was fortunate to live and enjoy artistic creation for many years, as we all know.

It only remains for me to thank all of you for being here and for all the expressions of admiration and affection that he received in life.

In his speech, the director of the UNAM Faculty of Architecture, Juan Ignacio del Cueto, expressed: She was a teacher who left her mark on many of her students, and an outstanding sculpture.. Subsequently, he read some texts included in the book María Lagunes: Trajectories, published in 2016 by the highest house of studies.

Lucina Jiménez, still head of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, and general director of Cultural Training and Management as of October 16, said at the tribute: “we are here to pay tribute to a great creator, a great woman who we always think of as an infinite artist; We think of her that way, because she was able to work and go through practically all the expressions of the plastic arts.

María Lagunes broke boundaries at a time when it was impossible to think of a sculpture, but she not only broke it in the sense of conquering a space to give life to that plethora of works that we now have, but she also did so by breaking with a time in that the abstract was not the space in which the aesthetics of the moment reigned; It was revolutionary.

After the speeches by officials and relatives, the first guard of honor was held and later the coffin with the artist’s remains was removed. His daughter Silvia reported that the cremation would take place later.

After finishing the ceremony, the media asked to speak with the new federal Secretary of Culture, but her response was: it’s not the timeand that next week he will meet with the press.