The editorial categories are research topics that have guided researchers during the recovery phase and continue to be the impetus behind the Documents Project’s digital archive and the Critical Documents book series. Developed by the project’s Editorial Board, each of the teams analyzed this framework and adapted it to their local contexts in developing their research objectives and work plans during the Recovery Phase. Learn more on the Editorial Framework page.
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The writer of this article claims that there has never been a more anarchic art scene than the one he is currently witnessing. It is the most improvised of all the current movements and, therefore, the one most likely to be fruitful and to prosper. It embraces all trends—or poor imitations of trends—and all the systems imported from Europe, using them to counter the bulk of traditional routines and to challenge them on behalf of a confused but imperious call for renewal sponsored by a small group of youngsters. In his opinion, the work of Alfredo Ramos Martínez represents both the superficiality and the poor imitations produced by the most banal schools of French art. At the School of Coyoacán, however, there are some outstanding young artists with new proposals, and he reviews both the painters and the sculptors. The one he most admires is Fermín Revueltas, one of the most noteworthy examples of rebellion against any imposition he deems to be of an academic nature.
The writer of this article links the Open-Air School of Coyoacán with its director, Alfredo Ramos Martínez (1871-1946), and with the youngest crop of students, both painters and sculptors. He condemns the bourgeois trend in the director’s painting, and praises the discoveries made by young students as they explore traditional art, as in the case of Ramón Cano, who brings an element of simplicity to his graceful, elegant expressions of popular art. The writer mentions artists who have not yet taken their place in the canon of the history of Mexican art, such as the painter Eduardo del Castillo and the sculptor Reyes Estrada. The author of this critical article possibly lived in Coyoacán, since that is where it was signed and, according to the historiography, was not someone to be taken into account in particular for his vision.