Gritón exhibition at the Mexico City Museum, first step to a “great retrospective”

The delirious explosion of colors and playful strokes of the exhibition Antonio Gritón: Messages from painting, inaugurated last Friday at the Museum of Mexico City to commemorate the first death anniversary of that artist, it is more than a journey that goes from celebration to denunciation and the call to resistance and struggle.

It is also the beginning of a long-term project that seeks to outline a multifaceted portrait of the edges that made up the work of a man who, although his axis was art, also stood out in cultural management, activism, the defense of Nahuatl, muralism, writing, publishing, music, education and the creation of spaces.

“This exhibition is the first step for a large retrospective that will cover several nuclei that will not necessarily be limited to one space, to tell who was Loud“explained Esmeralda Ortiz Unceta, daughter of the creator, who together with her brother Silvestre and the Banda Municipal gallery designed a line of action to fulfill this task.

“When we started to review my father’s files, to look for stories, to contact his friends and acquaintances, we saw that there is no space to condense what his life was. Because, in the end, it branched out, it was in different areas,” Esmeralda said in an interview with this newspaper.

“In the end it is an immense work. As this exhibition got closer we realized that it couldn’t be a retrospective, because it doesn’t take into account his extensive work. We rather proposed to make nuclei.

“We feel that this exhibition does not close anything, but rather opens the door to continue answering the question: who was Loud?

In this regard, Aleida Pardo Hernández, cultural manager and founder of Banda Municipal – an art gallery that works with the archive of this artist who died on December 5, 2024 – added that the next task will be to gather the stories and voices behind that creator, in order to enrich an archive that is alive and choral.

“There is a collection that the family has already organized, but there is also a story to collect and organize. With characters as relevant and unique as him, the most important thing is to gather the series of projects, voices and anecdotes that exist and that will continue to emerge,” he also added in an interview.

The task ahead will be arduous, Pardo acknowledges: “He was a character who did not stop: at the same time he was exhibiting in a gallery, he was working on a mural on the street, designing a project for a museum or donating work for some social cause, and all in the same day.”

More than a protocol act, the opening of Antonio Gritón: Messages from painting It was a festive and endearing gathering of friends, fellow artists and companions of the creator’s causes.

“A year ago our father died, and he left us a huge hole, a void that is felt, but that is also filled when we all get together, like today, not only to remember him on this death anniversary, but above all to celebrate his way of seeing and making art; also to share with great affection a part of that pictorial universe that he created,” Esmeralda Ortiz said in a brief speech.

He recalled that for Loud Creativity and art were an intrinsic part of the human condition. “For him, painting was not just facing the blank canvas: it was taking reality, interpreting it, distorting it and reinventing it to present it again, sometimes unrecognizable, before the viewer.”

He recalled that his father saw art as an act of affirmation and a reference for collective identity, but also as a tool for reflection.

“He said that art could place on the discussion table the great problems of society, which make us uncomfortable. This conviction led him to create critical art, deeply committed to social struggles and the intimacy of people.”

That same conviction drove him to develop projects that sought to promote access to and defense of cultural rights.

“One of the deepest marks he left was his ability to help build communities. He created links with artists, groups, students, with independent spaces and with social movements,” concluded Esmeralda.

According to the artist César Martínez Silva, this exhibition – made up of nearly 130 works – allows us to “remember, revive, resurrect, re-emerge, reappear, continue, follow up on the work of a great artist who is sincere, honest, purposeful and who at a given moment was a kind of guide.”

Mariana Gómez Godoy, general director of Historical, Artistic and Cultural Heritage of the local Ministry of Culture, announced that, as part of the exhibition, there will be a lottery and a dictionary in Nahuatl.