Media Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627
kwent2@unm.edu

January 16, 2008

New Exhibit on the Art of Carlos Merida at UNM’s Zimmerman Library

A new exhibit showcasing the art pf Carlos Merida opens on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 in the gallery of the Center for Southwest Research in the west wing of Zimmerman Library. The exhibit “Indigenous Dress and Sacred Text: The Art of Carlos Merida” will be open through May 16, 2008.

The exhibit is comprised of thirty-six prints, color serigraphs and lithographs, selected from six print portfolios produced during the 1940’s by Carlos Merida, a preeminent painter, printmaker, and muralist of 20 th century Mexico. Early artworks within Merida’s lifetime body of work attest to his contribution as one of the initiators of the indigenous movement in Mexico – a revaluation of living nature culture as the foundation of Mexican national identity-which gained momentum just prior to the Mexican revolution of 1910-1920.

In five of these portfolios, “Carnival in Mexico” (1940), “Mexican Costume” (1941), “Dances of Mexico” (1941, “Trajes Regionales Mexicanos” (1945), and “Trajes Indigenas de Guatemala” (1949), the artist renders regional native dress and dance costumes from Mexico and Guatemala in a way that is both documentary and decorative. Additionally, Merida draws inspiration from the ancient religious beliefs of the Quiche-Maya in the sixth portfolio “Estampas del Popol Vuh” (1943).

The exhibit is curated by UNM Center for Regional Studies Research Scholar, Teresa Eckmann. For questions about the exhibit, she can be reached at (505) 277-1010 or eckmann@unm.edu

The Center for Regional Studies, the Center for Southwest Research, the Division of Iberian and Latin American Resources and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology are all sponsors of the exhibit, which is free and open to the public.

Note: More images are available. If you are looking for more images, please email me at kwent2@unm.edu

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