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Sunday, Aug. 30, 1998
Gallery to display works of Rosario Cabrera
Artist mixed European sensibility with Mexican values
By MARY LEE GRANT
Staff WriterWhen Rosario Cabrera traveled from her native Mexico to Europe, she met the great artists of her time and painted in their style.
But when she returned, she shocked the Mexican art world by conducting outdoor schools for indigenous children and mixing a European sensibility with a Mexican sense of national identity.
The work of Cabrera, considered the first Mexican female artist of importance in this century, will be on display Monday through Oct. 2 at Texas A&M University-Kingsville at the Ben Bailey Art Gallery. An opening reception will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 14 with Blanca Garduna, director of the Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo in Mexico City, and Jose Casillas-Cabrera, son of the artist, attending. Garduna and Casillas-Cabrera will lecture on her work at 10 a.m. Sept. 15 at the gallery. Both events are free and open to the public.
``We have very seldom had an outside exhibit of this caliber here,'' said Bill Renfrow, art professor at A&M-Kingsville. ``It is quite an event for us.''
Cabrera was born in 1901 and was a contemporary of Frida Kahlo, the only Mexican female artist who has established iconic status in the United States and Europe.
Cabrera, who produced only between 1919 and 1928, is equal in artistic stature to Kahlo, said Santa Barraza, chairwoman of the art department at A&M-Kingsville.
``She isn't as well-known as Kahlo yet, but I think that may change,'' Barraza said. ``She had formal training, which Kahlo didn't, and had been to Europe, which Kahlo didn't have the opportunity to do. She did less work than Kahlo, only about 100 paintings, but she was very good. It is sad that she was not more recognized in her time.''
Cabrera was trained at the prestigious Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City from 1916 to 1921 and traveled and exhibited her work in Europe from 1925 to 1927.
It is important for the mostly Hispanic student body of A&M-Kingsville to have the chance to see works of prominent Mexican artists such as Cabrera, Barraza said.
``Hispanic students need to know they have this legacy'' Barraza said.
Credit for reviving her work can go to Garduna, the Mexico City museum curator who put the exhibit together.
In a telephone interview from Mexico City last week, Garduna said she had seen a painting of Cabrera among works by Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, read some correspondence between the two in Rivera's archives and grew curious about Cabrera.
``I wanted to revive her work and reputation,'' Garduna said. ``She was the first woman in Mexico to paint her own reality. She was very revolutionary and was a brave woman. For women in Mexico she opened a new road.''
Cabrera was the first woman in Mexico to conduct an open-air school, and the first to teach indigenous children, Garduna said.
``Her teaching was a very important part of what she did, showing new possibilities to the children of Mexico,'' Garduna said.
Cabrera's earlier works show a strong European influence, resembling that of the impressionists and depicting Parisian scenes and European landscapes.
But it was when she returned from Europe to Mexico that she truly came into her own, painting portraits of Indian children and Mexican scenes with brighter colors and clearer lines.
``I have no feeling for Europe,'' Cabrera wrote in the 1920s. ``I miss the sun, the cleanliness of the Mexican air, the character of our people and the internal vibrancy of their spirits, so close to my own. Here all is hostile to me, incomprehensible, cold.''
Renfrow said Cabrera's greatness lies in the blending of the European post-impressionistic style with Mexican subject matter.
Her work both gains and suffers from the varied stylistic approaches she brought to her work, Renfrow said.
``She experimented with a lot of different ways of painting and influences,'' Renfrow said. ``She tried to pull these things together. Sometimes she succeeded at that and other times she didn't. But she was breaking new ground.''
Female artists have been largely ignored in Mexican art history, Renfrow said.
``Now we are looking at them and re-evaluating their work,'' Renfrow said. ``In the future, people like Rosario Cabrera won't be left out of art history books.''Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web