Noticias
As part of the Mexico-Colombia Dual Year
San Ildefonso rediscovers Leo Matiz´s talent
June 13, 2017The esthetic contributions of the Colombian photographer, caricaturist, painter and draftsman Leo Matiz to modern photography, is what the Old School of San Ildefonso presents with the exhibition Leo Matiz: the muralist of the lens. Also, it addresses the interaction of the artist with the Mexican muralist movement, mainly with José Clemente Orozco.
The exhibition, which will be opened on Wednesday June 14th, is held as part of the commemoration of the centenary of the artist's birthday, as well as the Mexico-Colombia Dual Year. Presenting 94 pieces including photographs, graphic work and newspaper documents, it shows Leo Matiz’s art (April 1st 1917, Aracataca – October 24th 1998, Bogota).
Bertha Cea Echenique, executive coordinator of the Old School of San Ildefonso, said that Mexico and the world of the outstanding photographer will be discovered in this exhibition.
She also said that the stay of the Colombian artist in Mexico had a significant and transcendent impact in the later development of Latin American photography.
"During his stay in the country, Leo Matiz joined the interesting artistic, intellectual and social community of the time. He was related to the Mexican artists Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros. He portrayed painters like Frida Kahlo, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano and Francisco Zúñiga”.
"He lived with the great personalities of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, such as Maria Felix, Dolores del Rio, Gloria Marín, Agustín Lara and Cantinflas, as well as to be related with a select group of diplomats, photographers and writers”, said Bertha Cea.
The exhibition is divided into sections: The Work of a Photographer, Mexico in Leo Matiz’s look, The Intellectual and Artistic Environment in Mexico by Leo Matiz, Leo Matiz leaves Mexico, and Jose Clemente and Leo Matiz.
Ery Camara, curator of the exhibition, considers Leo Matiz as the muralist of the lens, who worked with the great muralists. He said that the exhibition shows that muralism refers to other languages to reinforce his own.
"When a painter paints, uses both eyes, when the photographer takes an image uses a cyclope eye, in such a way that, with the appearance of photography, the eye gained in perception and the muralists to understand it, seeing cinema and photography, invited Leo to collaborate with him on several projects”.
For the exhibition coordinator of the Old School of San Ildefonso, the exhibition shows the work of a photographer who, with a passion for Mexico, learned a style from the country, which coincided with the golden age of Mexican cinema and the international success of Gabriel Figueroa .
"Leo Matiz is a photographer for rediscovering. If you look at the number of intellectuals he interviewed or photographed, it is overwhelming. Almost all Mexico was photographed by him, everybody looked for him because he was charming, nice, and a good professional. Matiz fulfilled a role that today, from a distance, we appreciate ".
He commented that Matiz's background as a painter, cartoonist and caricaturist enriched his work as a photographer. "Leo Matiz, understanding all these languages, had the possibility of making blends and fusions. I think that has given a richness to his language, vocabulary and experience, because he was always open to experiment, he knew what he was doing”.
For his part, Miguel Ángel Florez Góngora, curator and Leo Matiz’s biographer, highlighted that the exhibition shows two types of photographs: great landscapes and intimate, private and close photographs.
In addition to images from the artistic, intellectual and cinematographic community, the exhibition shows different images captured at different stages of the photographer's life. Ery Camara stressed the section dedicated to José Clemente Orozco.
"The friendship that Matiz had with Jose Clemente Orozco made the photographer got a miracle. Most of Orozco's biographers speak of him as a very serious person, reserved and honest, but never smiling”.
"Thanks to their friendship, Matiz captured the modest, human Orozco, who is close to his son Clement. It is an unforgettable and endearing friendship that we can see in harmony”, he said.
Prior to the tour of the exhibition Bertha Cea Echenique reported that in July the Museum of the Palace of Fine Arts will host a homonymous exhibition, dedicated to the contributions of photography by Matiz to Mexican mural painting.
"The selection of works present in the exhibition at San Ildefonso is the first part of a large corpus that will be exhibited together with the Palace of Fine Arts. It will offer an integral vision that portrays the esthetic qualities of the work of this genius of the lens”, he said.
Leo Matiz: the muralist of the lens, will be at the Old School of San Ildefonso, Justo Sierra 16, Historical Center, from June 15th to September 28th. Hours: Tuesday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. General admission: $ 50. Tuesdays admission is free.
Mexico,Distrito Federal
