Carlos Merida:

I came across this series of prints while browsing through the

Latin American section of the Hood’s collection. I was attracted
by the bright colors and the figures.
 Encapsulates the mobility of artistic movements. A
Guatemalan by birth, he joined the Mexican Muralists in
Mexico after the revolution, traveled to New York and
Paris to join the avant-garde, becoming a champion of
Surrealism and geometric abstraction. His prints – based
on sketches and drawing made in Latin America, printed in
Paris, sold abroad.
 His career sheds light on the fact that artists on the
periphery have struggled to be given respectful
recognition by the art world
 Artists on the periphery – discrimination based on race,
gender, inability to access markets based on geographic
locations. It seems like a modern discussion, but the
integration of artists on the periphery has been going on
for a really long time.
 This is best encapsulated by his writings and works in the
first three decades of his career-the focus of my website.

The best way to study how Merida navigated these

transnational movements and pressures is to look at his career
chronologically.

Studies music -> Paris -> goes back home at the start of world
war one -> pivot to regional themes stemmed from a
desire to reject “old” Europe—and to excise its cultural
authority from the minds of local middle-class
audiences. -> purposeful collection for move to Mexico
City. Textiles on the dress, elongated face and neck
similar to European portraiture, itself borrowed from
African masks ; also resembles Tarascan sculpture

His artistic philosophy emphasized the role of the artist

as a creator and craftsman, rather than as a political
advocate. Emphasis on form color and line.
Discovery of Surrealism. Friendship with the Andre
Breton, writer of the Surrealist Manifesto. Surrealism
based in Mayan motifs and lore;
Heads from Bonampak is an ancient Maya archaeological site
in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Floating shapes and squiggly
lines taken from Joan Miro.

Geometric Abstraction; representation of Mayan

heritage in a modernist, not a literal form of Kandinsky
composition 8 By the late 30s, begins to move away
from geometric abstraction on paper.

Popul Vuh: Surrealist, lthographs, text translated by

Leah Brenner, sister of Anita Brenner; occasional
fetishization of Indianness by brenner, anthropologist
by training; Merida buys into that slightly with a series
of prints which financed his trip to paris, literally
copiedfrom postcards, illustrating travel books.