María Izquierdo (artist)
Her mother later married Dr. Nicanor Valdes Rodríguez, at which point Izquierdo was raised by her grandparents and relatives in small towns in Northern Mexico.Through President Álvaro Obregón, many new reform policies were emphasized, pushing for more social and educational institutions that upheld traditional Mexican beliefs and culture.His new reforms drew in many of Mexico's most talented artists, commissioning their creation of murals addressing the importance of traditional Mexican values, which were painted on both schools and government buildings.She was also highly influenced by Diego Rivera, who served the director of Academy of Fine Arts in 1929 and later became pivotal in helping launch Izquierdo's career.Izquierdo, along with Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, Rufino Tamayo, and Julio Castellanos, all had been associated with the Movimiento Pro-Arte Mexicano, founded by Adolfo Best Maugard.While celebrating Mexico's unique traditions, the Contemporáneos embraced this idea of universal cosmopolitanism, and believed that Mexican culture should remain open to international influences and to the voice of the urban intellectual.[7] One of her colleagues and close friend, Lola Álvarez Bravo remembers her as "a very cheerful woman with a folk spirit... like a jar full of pure fresh water...Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, and David Siquerios all proclaimed she lacked both talent and experience to complete such a large project.[9] An exhibition that traveled to Frankfurt, Vienna, and Dallas in 1987–88 showed a group of striking paintings by Izquierdo that announced to a non-Mexican audience the powerful presence of another painter of almost equal stature and originality.[7] Izquierdo was celebrated as an artist with a genuine understanding of native and rural traditions, and her altar paintings were recognized at the time for "their delightful indigenous ingenuousness.[18] According to scholar Robin Adèle Greeley, Izquierdo's paintings offer a deconstruction of 'heroic' Mexican nationalism using the marginalized identity of the female on two distinct levels: Growing up, Maria lived with her grandmother and an aunt, as was customary at the time.[15] In 1945, Izquierdo became the first woman to be granted a major governmental mural commission, in the central stairwell of the Department of the Federal District government building.In the initial stages of its execution, however, Mexico City's governor revoked the commission due to the interference of Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, who claimed that Izquierdo lacked the necessary experience for such a high-profile project.Izquierdo received an enormous amount of critical backlash in the press for speaking out against the idea that woman are treated and disrespected as something else in the work force, but she never backed down from her insistence that she deserved the commission from the mural.[8] Her aunt and grandmother instilled the idea of strong traditional family roles in Izquierdo, but she also believed that women should have the chance to explore different professional realms.[3] Izquierdo criticized feminism and "pseudo-intellectual" women stating, they think that bragging outloud makes them better [than men]; but deep inside they are still full of old prejudices and are just covering up with theatrical attitudes for their inferiority complex.The altar is erected on ascending tiers, and the shelves are lined with papel picado, a traditional Mexican craft of hand-cut, brightly colored paper.Local pottery, wares, fruits, and flowers signify the products of the land and the people of Mexico, as they do throughout Mexican post-colonial and modern art.A late domestic cabinet composition from 1952, La alacena (Viernes de jugueteria ), comes full circle back to Izquierdo's home altars of the previous decade.The composition includes elements typically found in her altars, such as the drawn lace curtains, extinguished candles, toy figurines, and papel picado.Naturaleza viva con huachinango, painted in 1946 by Maria Izquierdo, countered the Muralists' view of Mexican identity with a vision deeply opposed to it.Human activity is in manifested in windowless, abandoned buildings and untouched food set out for unknown, unimagined diners – an ironic and absurd display of abundance which only serves to point out the poverty of the surrounding landscape.[17] At age fourteen, she had an arranged marriage to a senior army officer, Colonel Cándido Posadas,[3] and bore three children (two boys and a girl) by the time she was 17 years old.
San Juan de los LagosJaliscoLos AngelesEscuela Nacional de Bellas ArtesTorreónMexico CityMexican RevolutionÁlvaro ObregónRufino TamayoManuel Rodríguez LozanoGerman GedoviusJulio CastellanosAdolfo Best MaugardLiga de Escritores y Artistas RevoluctionarosContemporáneosLola Álvarez BravoMarinaMoisés SáenzRene d'HarnoncourtstrokeJose OrozcoDavid SiqueriossurrealistFrida Kahlostill lifesHenri MatisseDía de los MuertosSan Juan de los Lagos, JaliscoSelf PortraitvotiveRemedios VaroLeonora CarringtonfeministMarie LaurencinStatue of María IzquierdoFaculty of Arts and DesignRodolfo Aguirre TinocoAbraham ÁngelRamón Alva de la CanalCarlos Alvarado LangLuis Arenal BastarMargarita AzurdiaAlberto BeltránÁngel BrachoCelia CalderónJosé Chávez MoradoJosé Clemente OrozcoMinerva CuevasFrancisco DosamantesFrancisco Eppens HelgueraManuel FelguérezGabriel Fernández LedesmaDemián FloresArturo García BustosAlfredo Guati RojoGabriel GuerraJazzamoartIrving KriesbergJorge MarínAdolfo MexiacLuis Ortiz MonasterioRoberto MontenegroNicolás Moreno (artist)Rodolfo NietoLuis NishizawaGabriel OrozcoSandra PaniSergio PerazaMelchor PeredoAntonio PujolAlfredo Ramos MartínezAurora Reyes FloresAntonio M. RuízSebastián (sculptor)Luciano SpanoShino WatabeAlfredo ZalceÁngel ZárragaSalón de la Plástica MexicanaGilberto Aceves NavarroAurea AguilarIgnacio AguirreLourdes AlanizRosa María AlfonsecaDavid Alfaro SiqueirosJesús Álvarez AmayaManuel Álvarez BravoColette Álvarez UrbajtelRaúl AnguianoChappie AnguloLuis Y. AragónGustavo Arias MuruetaJavier ArévaloLuis ArenalGerardo Murillo ("Dr. Atl")Abelardo ÁvilaIgnacio AsúnsoloSantos BalmoriSilvia BarbescuSofía BassiFeliciano BéjarArnold BelkinAngelina BeloffRoberto BerdecioHelen BickhamEnrique BostelmannRocío CaballeroGeles CabreraYolanda CabreraGloria Calero SierraSusana CamposFederico CanessiFederico CantúFrancisco Cárdenas MartínezAngélica CarrascoJulio Carrasco BretónBeatriz CasoRosa CastilloFidencio CastilloCarmen CastillejaFernando Castro PachecoElizabeth CatlettGuillermo CenicerosPedro CervantesVladimir CoraPedro Coronel