The federal Ministry of Culture (SC) and the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal) will pay tribute today to the artist María Lagunes, who died yesterday at the age of 102.
The ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. at the Palace of Fine Arts, where family, friends, colleagues and disciples will gather to recognize the artist’s national and international contribution to sculpture, drawing and painting.
Throughout six decades of tireless activity, the sculptor originally from Veracruz distinguished herself in the world of plastic arts for her unique style of combining abstract and figurative elements, using materials such as bronze, marble, concrete, stone and wood, to explore universal themes.
Among his works, large sculptural projects stand out, such as the Monument to Rosario Castellanos (1976), erected in the Chapultepec Forest; Sign (1984), located in the Torre Lomas building, on Las Palmas Avenue, awarded first prize in the Urban Sculpture Contest, and cyclic movements (2001), a complex located in the English Garden of the city of Caserta, Italy, considered a tribute to Stonehenge, a megalithic monument in Great Britain.
Lagunes was born in Hacienda de Angostillo, Veracruz, in 1922. At an early age she explored her qualities in music, dedicating herself to the study of classical guitar, and later studying interior design at the Women’s University of Veracruz.
Later, in 1957, he moved to Mexico City to enroll in the Higher School of Applied Arts of La Ciudadela, of the National Institute of Fine Arts, where he took classes with renowned artists, such as Arturo García Bustos, Francisco Dosamantes, Guillermo Silva , Tomás Chávez Morado, Francisco Zúñiga, Juan Soriano and Antonio Rodríguez Luna.
In 1966 he traveled to Paris, where he continued his studies and worked with André Bloc and the sculptor Ossip Zadkine. In that period his sculpture evolved towards abstract and geometric volumes, creating almost architectural compositions.
From 1969 to 2004 he combined his creative activity with teaching at the Faculty of Architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he taught his knowledge in drawing and sculptural forms. In 2020 she joined the Academy of Arts of Mexico as a full academic.
His work has been exhibited individually and collectively in galleries and museums in Mexico, France, Spain, Italy, the United States and China. His pieces are found in public and private collections, in national territory and abroad.
Multi-awarded in the world
The first Mexican to exhibit at the Parisian gallery Mont-Orendain, she received several awards throughout her career. He obtained the Gold Medal and honorable mention at the International Stone Biennial (Marino, Italy) in 1980. In 1981 he was awarded the prize of the International Salon of Art, Literature and Music, in France, and in 1984 the Honorary Award and Gold Plate from the 21st International Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture and Graphics of the Giulio Rodino International Artistic and Cultural Center.
In Mexico, in 2011, he received first prize in the Trophy design competition of the National Chamber of the Iron and Steel Industry; In 2005 he was given the Silver Medal for 35 years of academic services at the UNAM Faculty of Architecture.
Last August, accompanied by her daughters, María and Silvia Segarra Lagunes, she received the 2024 Gold Medal for Fine Arts. During this ceremony, the general director of Inbal, Lucina Jiménez López, highlighted that the sculptor is an example for current and future generations.
“His alchemist spirit allowed him to create a symbolic and aesthetic universe of wood, metal, concrete and onyx. No one like her has developed such a material exploration and her own way of combining sculpture with urban space and nature.
Owner of a deep sensitivity, she did not limit herself to a single discipline, but traveled through many different languages and artistic forms: textiles, engraving, oil painting, portrait photography and much more. His interdisciplinary training gave him rare, unrepeatable freshness and forcefulness.
said the official.
The architect Francesco Cellini, president of the prestigious National Academy of San Luca, Italy, and present at the award ceremony, then pointed out that the creative activity of María Lagunes was incessant and is much broader than what has been exhibited in exhibitions. or museums. How fortunate to have met her, to appreciate her invaluable human qualities and, on more than one occasion, to collaborate with her.
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– 2024-10-05 16:27:41