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 José Núñez y Domínguez interviews the painter Ángel Zárraga about his first year back working in Mexico after almost four full decades in Europe. The artist would respond with pride, saying “my days have been filled with great effort and intense work . . . .” At the journalist’s request, Zárraga lists the paintings he has rendered in Mexico. Zárraga also speaks of the commission from his friend, the architect Mario Pani, to decorate the Club de Banqueros in downtown Mexico City. The writer also asks Zárraga about the controversy that has arisen around the paintings of Jorge González Camarena, to which he responds that they are indeed “good paintings.” Thus, he implicitly denies the rumors that he is the author of the negative articles written about González Camarena’s work.
The artist Ángel Zárraga (1886-1946) sets forth an inventory of what he has done in Mexico upon his arrival one year earlier. Regarding his murals at the Club de Banqueros in the Edificio Guardiola, he calls the controversy about the works of Jorge González Camarena (1908-80) a “pestilente polvareda” [tempest in a teapot] thus distancing him from any sort of involvement. Zárraga goes on to accept the negative criticisms on his own frescoes stated by both José Clemente Orozco and Dr. Atl. However, Zárraga does allow a reproach or two about their conduct to slip into the conversation. After clarifying this matter, the artist talks about his own work in process at the Monterrey Cathedral and the lectures he has given by official request.