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Herencia Milenaria
Contemporary Ceramics from Tonalá, Jalisco, Mexico.
Red Contemporary gallery in Steamboat Springs, CO, is proud to host Herencia Milenaria, a world class ceramics exhibition commemorating the bicentennial of the Mexican Independence and Revolution. Opening June 4th, this exquisite collection, curated by Chuck Plosky, Professor of Ceramics at New Jersey City University and Ángel Santos Juárez of Tonalá, Jalisco, Mexico, includes approximately 90 pieces representing the major historic ceramic styles employed in this Mexican region.
A rare opportunity, the pieces in this museum show are for sale to the public, although pieces sold must stay with the show through February 2011, the conclusion of its US exhibition. The exhibit was procured by Steamboat’s International Art Committee and is sponsored by the Office of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Mexican Consulate in Denver, Colorado. Red Contemporary will host a reception for Eduardo Arnal, the Consul General of Mexico, on June 23rd. The public is welcome.
Herencia Milenaria: Craftsmen in Evolution is a cultural project organized by recognized craftsmen proud of their traditions. Virtually unknown in the United States except among high-end ceramic collectors and museum specialists, the 19 artists of Herencia Milenaria are among the best in Mexico. They are committed to research and the diffusion of knowledge of materials, techniques and aesthetics. Their efforts give continuity to the ceramic arts as a cultural legacy and honor the natural beauty of their surroundings.
Most of these artists are members of families working in clay for more than two hundred years. Their work is amazingly rich in concept and execution. They create ceramic forms as surfaces for painters who love making marks on three-dimensional objects. These marks tell stories, depict events real and fantastic, and demonstrate the sheer beauty of a line drawn with a brush on a red surface. One of the represented artists, Florentino Jimón Barba states “la vida cerámica es la vida lírica” (“a life in ceramics is a lyric life”). He lives to create object poems. Techniques and materials drive the aesthetic vision of the ceramic artists of Tonalá; but it is the creation of objects as poetic statements that motivates these artists.
The work of each family group has evolved slowly into very clearly defined art forms based on specific work methods, the special character of the materials available, and the culture and history of the region and its place in the United States of Mexico. The Jimón, Santos and Lucano families work in barro bruñido (burnished clay) while the Medrano family works in barro betus (resin surface). The Ramos Lucano family creates images using a style of brushwork called petatillo (linear mat patterns). Early works from these families are in the collections of many American museums.
After the Mexican Revolution the great Mexican mural painters were influential in transforming the self perception of Tonalá’s clay artisans (artesanos). Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, together with American and European artists and collectors, helped the artisans recognize their work as essential to Mexican cultural identity. Edward Weston’s 1926 photograph of Amado Galvan’s hand, using a camera angle from below, presents the artesano and his work as heroic. The muralists demonstrated the power of art to explore political, social, and historical and folk art images. The ceramic artists of Tonalá were able to accept the muralists’ influence based on a mutual love of drawing, storytelling, graphic design and sense of national responsibility after the Mexican Revolution.
Herencia Milenaria was selected to be part of the International Ceramics Festival ALL-FIRED-UP in Westchester County New York in the fall of 2008. In 2009 it was shown at New Jersey City University Galleries in Jersey City, New Jersey. Prior to these recent shows, the last time the artists of Tonalá presented an in depth exhibition in the USA was in 1963 in New York City. The reviews by the arts critics of the New York Times and the New Yorker expressed high praise regarding the aesthetic and the technical mastery evident in the works.
The show will be exhibited at Red Contemporary Gallery from June 4th to August 15th. More information and a preview of the show are available at herenciamilenaria.org.mx. Special rates for show-goers are available at the Sheraton Steamboat by calling 970-879-2220 or e-mailing reservation.steamboat@sheraton.com and requesting the RED Gallery rate. Red Contemporary is located on the mountain in the Sheraton Hotel lobby/breezeway. Summer hours are Friday and Saturday 12 to 6 p.m., and Sunday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Red is also open by easy and convenient appointments anytime at 970-846-8994 or 970-846-0791.
Following its run in Steamboat Steamboat Springs, Herencia Milenaria travels to the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities in Denver in mid-September and in mid-December to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.
CONTACT INFORMATION: Pat Walsh, Steamboat Springs, CO 970-846-0791
Susan Schiesser, Steamboat Springs, CO 970-846-7879
Red Contemporary, Sheraton Steamboat Hotel and Resort
2220 Village Inn Court, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487
970-871-8994
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