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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Critic Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna reviews the content of the newly opened Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. After several visits to take in the breadth of the collection, he concludes that the Mexican painting section constitutes “a broader panorama than [that] of the I Bienal Interamericana . . . one can observe the classic extremes of realism and abstractionism.” The critic lists the participating artists and describes their work. Among them, there are several whose works “do not offer any disturbing impressions.”
While the painter and critic Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna at first believed that “it was a good decision not to have limited the accepted works to any one trend,” his general account of the Mexican painting exhibition was not enthusiastic. In his judgment, both the national artists and “transplanted foreigners” offered nothing new. One can deduce from the author’s words (and those of the era’s critics) that the selection of works by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) was of middling quality. Crespo de la Serna describes the works by Marysole Worner Baz, Francisco Icaza, Vicente Rojo, and Leonardo Nierman as the only ones “that truly display enthusiasm and spirit.” The works of these four belonged to trends that were far removed from the Mexican School: the first two were Expressionist, while the others were abstract works.