Exhibition of ‘El Corcito’ at the Amparo Museum gives the keys to capturing the value of his work

Puebla, Pue. How did the Mexican painter, muralist and set designer Antonio Ruiz achieve The Corcito (Texcoco, 1892 – Mexico City, 1964) to build, with such monumentality, works so little ones in format, as La Malinche, so full of pictorial details and so reproduced? Where did your strategies come from to compose such a complex, detailed pictorial scene, so full of humor, satire and many critical comments on Mexico in the first half of the 20th century?

These questions and their keys are in his archive, in his time in Hollywood and in architecture, when he understood how spaces were designed, or how in a play or in dance, the stages were so important, as were the costumes. explains curator Luis Vargas Santiago.

This is how the exhibition is outlined El Corcito, montages and scenes from modern Mexico, which is presented at the Amparo Museum after two years of a process that has meant arduous curatorial work, archiving, scientific work and historical dialogue, which reveal the validity of the work of one of the most important painters in Mexico, who commemorates, on October 9, 60 years since his death.

Ramiro Martínez, director of the venue, explained that the exhibition brings together 49 paintings, photographs, sketches, models, drawings, decorations, reproductions and documentation from the personal archive of The Corcito, and revisits this artist who was less visible than his contemporaries –Diego Rivera or Rufino Tamayo–, in an exercise that takes place from another place (Puebla) that is not the center; that is, Mexico City.

Luisa Barrios, granddaughter of The Corcito, He pointed out that this other place is also represented in the date and place of his grandfather’s birth, since it has been possible to clarify that he was born in Texcoco, state of Mexico, on September 2, 1892, and not in the capital of the country, as it was believed. It was difficult to say that I was Texcocan because of this centralism that existed in Mexico Cityhe mentioned alongside the curators Dafne Cruz Porchini and Luis Vargas, members of the Aesthetic Research Institute (IIE) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

He said that he was orphaned at an early age and taken in by a wealthy family that sent him to a Jesuit school in Morelia, Michoacán, and then, after his studies and the protection of another family, he went to Mexico City to study at night in the Academy of San Carlos, alongside Miguel Covarrubias and Rufino Tamayo, as a disciple of artists such as Saturnino Herrán and Germán Gedovius, while venturing into architecture thanks to his friendship with Carlos Lazo.

Barrios highlighted his grandfather’s time in Hollywood, where he wanted to try his luck and it didn’t go well at allso he returned to Mexico and settled in Mixcoac, to later participate in the Cultural Missions led by Adolfo Best Maugard, interested in architectural language.

Likewise, he referred to the incursion of The Corcito in the cinema, creating sets in a couple of key films in the national filmography: Let’s go with Pancho Villa y Women rule, both by Fernando de Fuentes. He also highlighted his mural work at the Cinematographers’ Union, where he made his first fresco, which was destroyed and is now faithfully recreated in the Amparo Museum, based on a newspaper photograph.

Luisa Barrios also mentioned the teaching work of The Corcito in the model workshop of the National Polytechnic Institute and in La Esmeralda, of which he was the founding director in 1943 – where he consolidated his close friendship with Frida Kahlo –, while working as a set designer and costume designer for theater and dance, alongside the playwright Rodolfo Usigli and the dancers and choreographers Ana Sokolow and Nellie Campobello.

For the curators Dafne Cruz Porchini and Luis Vargas, the exhibition El Corcito, montages and scenes from modern Mexico gives the keys, through architecture, cinema, theater and dance, to understand the importance and artistic legacy of Antonio Ruiz.

“We thought about doing an interdisciplinary reading; that is, the dialogue that had The Corcito not only with mural painting, but with scenography, architecture and cinema,” said the postgraduate coordinator in art history at the IIE.

Thus, he trusted that works like Malinche They reveal the elements of modern Mexico and the way in which The Corcito He captured in detail the reality, the characters and the situations of his time. We also show the formation of a scientific and cultural community in Mexico in the 20s, 30s and 40s of the previous century, in which he was very immersed. Antonio Ruiz, who owes his nickname to his physical resemblance to the Spanish bullfighter The Roe Deer.

Therefore, in the exhibition at the Amparo Museum, more than a chronological tour, what is sought is to problematize, through six thematic cores (Theaters and sets, Female universes, Costumes, Characters of Modern Mexico, Mural production and The cinematographic gaze ), the general production of Antonio Ruiz, who died on October 9, 1964, after a long illness.

The exhibition, which is a national production carried out with the Efiartes fiscal stimulus and with the support of publishing house Delti and Pinturas Osel, will remain until November 4 in the rooms on the ground floor of the Amparo Museum (2 Sur 708, Historical Center of Puebla) .

At the same time, a book of the same name published by the venue and the IIE will be presented.