Show “Oswaldo Vigas. Look inside” arrives in Mexico

The Museum of Modern Art of Mexico (MAM) presents the first individual exhibition of the artist Oswaldo Vigas in the Central American country until February 2024

The Museum of Modern Art of Mexico (MAM) presents the exhibition Oswaldo Vigas. Look inside, the first individual exhibition of the Venezuelan artist in that country, which is held on the occasion of the centenary of his birth and which brings together more than 100 works by Vigas and other Latin American and European creators that dialogue with his vision of modern art. .

"Oswaldo Vigas is one of the most important painters of Latin American art of the 20th century, and is a key piece in understanding the modernist context in Latin America. Oswaldo Vigas turned his gaze towards his native country, its inhabitants and its culture. Inspired by the demonstrations materials from his pre-Hispanic history and through indigenous legends and myths, Vigas created his own pictorial language that distinguishes him as a precursor of modernity," the production highlighted in a statement.

"Vigas was established as a formal reference and a central link between the different proposals that, in order to generate a Latin American language, were developed in the middle of the last century both in the French capital and in its homeland, Venezuela. Therefore Therefore, delving into the work of the Venezuelan artist implies understanding the sources of inspiration and the discursive motivations that guided many of the most transcendent Latin American artists of the time. Taking Vigas as the thematic and conceptual axis, Oswaldo Vigas. Looking inward, we immerses itself in the plastic universe of Modernism and its greatest exponents," they added.

Fundamental works of Vigas
Oswaldo Vigas. Looking inward, 100 years after the artist's birth, explores fundamental works of his career, as well as his intellectual interests, in dialogue with other Venezuelan, Latin American and European creators of the time.

This exhibition was curated by Carlos Palacios, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, and had the collaboration of the Oswaldo Vigas Foundation. It will be open to the public until February 11, 2024.

The exhibition brings together pieces from different African and South American cultures, as well as around 110 works by 27 artists belonging to the MAM collection and from collections of public and private institutions, among which are Rufino Tamayo, Wifredo Lam, Joaquín Torres-Garcia, Roberto Matta, Pierre Alechinsky, Carlos Mérida, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Thea Segall, Carlos Orozco Romero, René Portocarrero, Joaquín Roca Rey, Francisco Matto, Lilia Carrillo, Oswaldo Guayasamín, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Elsa Gramcko.

Stages of the exhibition
Oswaldo Vigas. Looking inward is divided into three cores: in the first, In Search of the Primitive, a brief tour of the cultural references and artistic manifestations of an ethnographic nature from Africa and America, as well as pre-Hispanic Venezuelan art, are fundamental sources. for the development of the artist's subsequent work; Looking at Venezuela, the second nucleus, reviews in a deeper and clearer way the influence of pre-Hispanic art and the indigenous groups of Venezuela on the painter's work. In the last core, Latin America and the local, a time of myths and magic, various European and Latin American artists are reviewed who, like Vigas, use fiction, myth and the idea of a magical time to express their reality.