SAMA hosts Perspectivas Populares April 12th-July, 2009
Traditional folk art is universally considered the product of communities. It is the embodiment of communal values and collective perspectives. At the other end of the artistic spectrum is “outsider art,” also referred to as “art brut,” “self-taught art,” or “visionary art.”
Characteristically, outsider art is unabashedly idiosyncratic and expresses the worldview of individual artists, freed from the constraints of the communities where they live.
Perspectivos Populares focuses on five 20th-century artists in the permanent collection whose work, in varying degrees, occupies positions between these two genres. All draw from their communities in terms of daily stimulae, but, on the other hand, all manifest unique artistic responses to their individual environments.
None are in step with other, more traditional artists of their communities. Texan José Varela used his mundane daytime work in a brick factory as an opportunity to create extraordinarily singular depictions of family, friends, animals, and religious images special to him. Charming, charismatic animals were created from cement by Beatrix Ximénez from South Texas.
Spanish artist Antonio Heredia Navarrete collected road tar from his Catalan neighborhood and shaped it into colorfully painted figures that remind us of the fantastic world of Dr. Seuss. Lucas and Santiago Lorenzo, from the Mexican village of Xalitla, Guerrero, have deviated from the traditional bark paintings and decorative ceramic pots of their neighbors to create unique portraits of national heroes and popular religious figures boldly painted on commercial masonite.
Other artists, whose identities are unknown at present, have offered their individual worldviews through carved walking sticks and wooden portraits.
These unique perspectives exhibited here further broaden our appreciation for the ever vibrant artistic spirit of Spain, Mexico and South Texas.
Perspectivos Populares was made possible through the generous support of Friends of Latin American Art and Claire Golden. Special thanks is also given to Peter P. Cecere, whose extraordinary eye for non-traditional folk art inspired this exhibition.
Characteristically, outsider art is unabashedly idiosyncratic and expresses the worldview of individual artists, freed from the constraints of the communities where they live.
Perspectivos Populares focuses on five 20th-century artists in the permanent collection whose work, in varying degrees, occupies positions between these two genres. All draw from their communities in terms of daily stimulae, but, on the other hand, all manifest unique artistic responses to their individual environments.
None are in step with other, more traditional artists of their communities. Texan José Varela used his mundane daytime work in a brick factory as an opportunity to create extraordinarily singular depictions of family, friends, animals, and religious images special to him. Charming, charismatic animals were created from cement by Beatrix Ximénez from South Texas.
Spanish artist Antonio Heredia Navarrete collected road tar from his Catalan neighborhood and shaped it into colorfully painted figures that remind us of the fantastic world of Dr. Seuss. Lucas and Santiago Lorenzo, from the Mexican village of Xalitla, Guerrero, have deviated from the traditional bark paintings and decorative ceramic pots of their neighbors to create unique portraits of national heroes and popular religious figures boldly painted on commercial masonite.
Other artists, whose identities are unknown at present, have offered their individual worldviews through carved walking sticks and wooden portraits.
These unique perspectives exhibited here further broaden our appreciation for the ever vibrant artistic spirit of Spain, Mexico and South Texas.
Perspectivos Populares was made possible through the generous support of Friends of Latin American Art and Claire Golden. Special thanks is also given to Peter P. Cecere, whose extraordinary eye for non-traditional folk art inspired this exhibition.
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