LACMA ACQUIRES MAJOR DIEGO RIVERA DRAWING

  Diego Rivera's Huicholes now on view  
in the Bernard and Edith Lewin Latin American Art Galleries  

JULY 18, 2002

LOS ANGELES-The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced today the gift of a major drawing by Diego Rivera. Huicholes, a charcoal on canvas, dated 1951, is a bold depiction of two Mexican Indian musicians. The large-scale drawing is currently on display in the Bernard and Edith Lewin Latin American Art Galleries in LACMA West.

LACMA's commitment to Latin American art, seen notably in the opening of the Bernard and Edith Lewin Latin American Art Galleries and the adjacent research center in December 2000, has begun to attract significant artworks as gifts. This recent gift of Huicholes by an anonymous donor fits well with LACMA's collection of Mexican modernist works, and is currently displayed next to other works by Rivera and his contemporaries.

Huicholes depicts members of a Mexican Indian group largely concentrated in the rugged mountains of the Sierra Madre Occidental, mainly in the states of Jalisco and Nayarit. Huicholes is unusual in that it is a drawing on canvas, illustrative of an important theme of Rivera's oeuvre and of his working method as a whole.

More than any other artist, Diego Rivera defines the golden age of Mexican modernism. In his vast public murals painted in Mexico and the United States from the early twenties through the early fifties, Rivera created a new iconography that expounded socialist ideals and exalted the popular heritage of Mexican culture. He also produced a large body of easel paintings and graphic work.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Diego Rivera, like many Mexican artists, traveled to Europe and became acquainted with the most avant-garde trends of the time. Upon Rivera's return to Mexico in 1921, his aim was to create a universal language that would also communicate a sense of national pride. In the wake of the Mexican Revolution, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, the lives and traditions of indigenous peoples became important for many Mexican modernists. The broad current of indigenismo was manifested in the rediscovery and revaluation of native culture, as well as in the use of Indian themes in literature and the visual arts. In fact, throughout his career, Diego Rivera created numerous works representing the indigenous population of Mexico, often combining his skill as an artist and his acute "ethnographic" interest.

About the Bernard and Edith Lewin Latin American Art Galleries

Occupying 4,000 square feet in LACMA West, the Bernard and Edith Lewin Latin American Art Galleries strengthen LACMA's commitment to collect and exhibit the finest Latin American art. The collection includes works by José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, Freida Kahlo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Carlos Mérida, and Diego Rivera. With the opening of the Latin American Art Galleries and continued expansion of the permanent collection in this area, LACMA has become one of the premier repositories for twentieth-century Latin American art in the United States.

About LACMA

LACMA's permanent collection includes more than 110,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present, making it the premier encyclopedic visual arts museum in the western United States.  The museum uses its collection and resources to provide a variety of educational, aesthetic, intellectual and cultural experiences for its visitors.  In addition, LACMA offers an ever-changing series of outstanding special exhibitions of the work of the world's leading artists, as well as lectures, classes, family activities, film programs and musical events. 

#         #         #