Sample analyzes the complex practice of self-portrait

A game of mirrors in which the visitor is confronted with his own image precedes the tour of I cry when the rice burns: Self-portrait and self-narrative in the SHCP collectionscollective exhibition mounted in the institution’s Art Gallery. Below you can see how 37 artists, from different generations, styles and historical moments, have seen themselves or their surroundings.

The taste for self-portraits is a common theme among artists. The way you look at yourself takes on different nuances. Francisco Toledo (1940-2019) was never complacent with his image, as can be seen in the two graphs and a drawing of his authorship included in the exhibition. The features of Marysole Worner Baz (1936-2014), in turn, are barely perceived due to the dark tones of Yomixed on paper from 2006. Nahum B. Zenil (1947), always the main character of his production, in oil Delirium (1992) is shown naked, from the front, in a state of vulnerability. Other artists, such as Germán Venegas (1959) in an ink on paper from 2006, are kinder to himself.

The earliest work in the exhibition is The painter (1947), oil painting by Raúl Anguiano, founder of the Payment in Kind program with figures such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Adolfo Best Mauguard and José Chávez Morado. The most recent piece is the linocut my breakfast (2023), by Carmen Alarcón. Another early work is Self-portrait (1956), oil by Antonio Ruiz The Corcito (1892-1964).

Other artists in the exhibition are Alejandro Colunga, José Luis Cuevas, Maru de la Garza, Magali Lara, Marisa Lara, Gabriel de la Mora, Darío Ortiz, Carla Rippey and Vlady. The techniques used vary between painting, sculpture, graphics, drawing, photography and ceramics.

Con Self-portrait and self-narrative The 2026 exhibition cycle of the General Directorate of the Conservatorship of the National Palace and Cultural Heritage (DGCPNPC), of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) begins. The phrase “I cry when the rice burns” comes from a poem by Rosario Castellanos, precisely titled Self-portrait. In the gallery, the public will be able to hear the poem in the author’s voice thanks to UNAM’s Live Voice series.

I play with the mirror

According to Alicia Muñoz Cota, director of Museums, Venues and Exhibitions of the DGCPNPC, this is a topic that is being worked on and exhibited as such for the first time in the SHCP collections. A self-portrait can be many things, “the projection of yourself before yourself, also a reinterpretation, or how you perceive yourself as opposed to how others see you. It is a game with the mirror, that is why the exhibition opens with a set of these objects of different shapes and sizes, because it is an exercise in self-confrontation that, suddenly, goes through this path of art,” he points out.

The exhibition of 41 pieces analyzes the complex practice of self-portraiture as an exercise in introspection, in which psychological aspects, technical processes and the social role of the creators belonging to the Payment in Kind Program converge.

In 2025, the presidential decree that authorizes the SHCP to “receive from artists who produce works of plastic arts independently, the payment of the income tax of natural persons; who directly cause by said activity, with works of their production” completed half a century.

Muñoz Cota points out that this is a “living collection that grows year after year”, while “new styles, techniques and themes flourish. One of our duties is to disseminate it and this is one of the virtues of group exhibitions. You will not end up exhibiting them all, but you will bring to light a group of them that also works on a specific theme.” If the exhibition includes work by artists whose names may be less known to the public, “this is what it is about, having a democratization in the same collection. Maybe they are not as famous, but they are part of one of the most relevant collections in the country.”

I cry when the rice burns… It will remain until the end of June in the SHCP Art Gallery (Republic of Guatemala 8, Historic Center).