A native of Guadalajara, artist Enrique Velazquez has made his home in Ajijic since 1989, painting and selling from his Arte Estudio on 16 de Septiembre, (a block east of Morelos), which he shares with his wife, Belva, also an artist. Together they are raising three children, two boys and a girl, while capturing Mexican […]
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Juan O’Gorman was born on July 6, 1905, in Coyoacán, Mexico City. His father, Cecil Crawford O’Gorman, was a mining engineer and artist of Irish origin; his mother was Mexican. Juan was educated at the National University (UNAM), and became a well known architect. A follower of the Franco-German rationalism school, he was one of […]
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The north shore of Lake Chapala is alive with the arts in all their manifestations. Music and dance — from folk to classical, theater in English at the Lakeside Little Theatre, book clubs and creative writing groups complement the offering of galleries. Here are some suggestions to get you started. The telephone numbers are local. […]
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Alfredo Zalce, at age 94, is the elder of Mexico’s last living renowned, great revolutionary muralists. He was born in Patzcuaro, in the state of Michoacan, on January 12, 1908. During his early years he became friends with Mexico’s older great artists, including Rivera, Tamayo, Siquieros, Orozco, and Kahlo. He founded art schools and organizations […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews It’s hard for a reader to know exactly what to make of this one. Is it fiction? Or is it biography? Or is it something in between? In an author’s note Ms. Mujica states: “Although events in Mexican history and in Frida’s life provide the general framework, many incidents and characters portrayed here […]
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Cogan’s Reviews This month features a rather unusual volume. At first glance it appears to be one of those handsome coffee table books full of colorful photographs – and, in a way, there’s a very definite element of that about it. However, a closer look reveals that this is a volume with much, much more […]
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Throughout the novel, we see the forceful character of Frida displaying itself The largest Frida Kahlo exhibit ever has just ended in Mexico City. Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of her birth, the show featured 65 oil paintings, 45 drawings, 11 watercolors and five engravings. Frida Kahlo fervor has been strong in recent […]
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It is perhaps only in the “advanced” civilizations that artists are elevated above craftsmen, with the former thought to be leading the cultural vanguard while the latter are only practicing traditional folk crafts. This attitude often separates the artistic talent from the technical prowess of art. There is nothing wrong with a painter who relies […]
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For the Mexican painter Javier Vasquez, painting is performance – a performance done to jazz. As he paints, his hand and brush flash across the canvas, echoing and replicating in paint the rhythms and riffs of the music. He works with the intensity and spontaneity of the action painters of the 1950’s, but for him […]
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We jounce for five hours in a pickup truck heading west from Tampico over the dusty Mexican plain to the Sierra Madre, up and up into a green world-peaks as sudden as the mountains of Moorea, tree-covered jagged ranges huge enough to be the molars of God, past coffee plantations, ramping bougainvillea, banana trees, crashing […]
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