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Description: Mexico’s Revolutionary Avant-Gardes: From Estridentismo to ¡30–30!
This book has been gestating for a long time and could not have been possible without the help of many people. I am particularly grateful to my Columbia University adviser, Keith Moxey, whose creativity, intelligence, and kindness from my days as an undergraduate inspired me to become an art historian. Christina Kiaer, my coadviser, lent her support when I most needed it and showed me how to be a better writer. Alfred MacAdam, an unwavering ally since my undergraduate years, provided keen …
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00083.002
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Acknowledgments
This book has been gestating for a long time and could not have been possible without the help of many people. I am particularly grateful to my Columbia University adviser, Keith Moxey, whose creativity, intelligence, and kindness from my days as an undergraduate inspired me to become an art historian. Christina Kiaer, my coadviser, lent her support when I most needed it and showed me how to be a better writer. Alfred MacAdam, an unwavering ally since my undergraduate years, provided keen insight and encouragement.
I am fortunate to have had the backing of individuals and institutions in Mexico, who have helped this book come together in its present form. I am especially grateful for the friendship and assistance of María Monserrat Sánchez Soler, director of the Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, and María Estela Duarte Sánchez of the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL). Both have generously devoted time and resources to helping make this publication possible. My research assistant, Adriana Clemente Mejía, of the Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, has been instrumental in serving as my proxy in Mexico, helping collect images, permissions, and information with the utmost efficiency and patience.
Rutgers University, my home institution, has provided support for this project on an almost yearly basis. I am grateful to have received funding from the Research Council, the Office for the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, and the School of Arts and Sciences. Among my colleagues, Ann Fabian, in her capacity as dean, helped me obtain much-needed support early on. Michael J. Pazzani stepped in toward the end of this process to facilitate the last bit of funding. At Rutgers I have two departmental families: art history and Latino and Hispanic Caribbean studies. In art history, I am especially grateful to Joan Marter for her advice and mentorship. Jane Sharp, Tanya Sheehan, Andrés Zervigón, and Susan Sidlauskas all provided intellectual direction and encouragement, as did Carla Yanni, John Kenfield, Erik Thunø and Catherine Puglisi. I thank Cathy Pizzi and Geralyn Colvil for their administrative support as well as their kindness. In Latino and Hispanic Caribbean studies, Yolanda Martínez San Miguel has been an outstanding mentor. I am deeply thankful for the support of Aldo Lauria Santiago. Michelle Stephens, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Yarimar Bonilla, Carlos Ulises Decena, and Kathleen López have been excellent, encouraging colleagues as well. Sarah O’Meara González has been enormously helpful. I also thank Evan Taparata for his assistance with research. Others at Rutgers to whom I owe a debt of gratitude are Isabel Nazario and Ferris Olin for their mentorship; fellow members of the 2011–12 Center for Cultural Analysis seminar “Public Knowledge: Institutions, Networks, Collectives” for their incisive comments on two chapters, especially Henry Turner, Jennifer Bajorek, Andrew Stroffolino, and Marcy Schwartz; and the graduate students in my “Mexican Modernisms” seminar of spring 2012, in particular Allison Harbin, Tashima Thomas, and Jodi Rodgers.
I am grateful to the families of the artists and writers who compose this study for welcoming me into their homes, sharing their anecdotes, and giving me the opportunity to examine their collections, photographs, and mementos. Eric List, Edgar List, and Ady Crespo de la Serna de List have always been available for a visit and have generously granted me access to their archives. Salvador Gallardo Topete and Salvador Gallardo Dávalos have shared with me precious printed material that is not available elsewhere. Mireya Maples Vermeesch, Mireya Cueto, Ana María Icaza, Ramón Xirau, Lénica Puyhol de Vela, and Jorge Ramón Alva Hernández have also been wonderful hosts. Thank you as well to Pablo Cueto, Olynca Fernández Ledesma Villaseñor, Andrea Méndez, Joel Enríquez Méndez, David Charlot, and Emilio Revueltas for having allowed me to reproduce the work of their relatives. I am especially grateful to John Charlot for his hospitality in my visits to Honolulu, for his intellectual generosity, and for his untiring work to record the achievements of his father. Fernando Leal-Audirac has followed this project from its inception, and I appreciate his continued support, his profound knowledge of the period, and the time he has taken to educate me on the art of painting, of which he is a consummate master.
Through the years of researching and preparing this book for publication, I have worked with a number of individuals and institutions whom I would like to thank. Rocío Guerrero Mondoño has always generously shared archival materials and opportunities for collaboration. Through her efforts, the estridentista journal Horizonte finally has been made available to the public. I am grateful for her wisdom and friendship. The Jean Charlot Foundation funded my first trip to Honolulu to work in the Jean Charlot Collection of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa Library; I am appreciative of the support of the foundation and of the warm welcome that I have received at the collection from Bronwen Solyom. I have made Bron turn the collection upside down looking for images, and I am extremely thankful for her help and generous spirit. I am also grateful for the support of the Fulbright-García Robles commission for the opportunity to travel to Mexico. At the Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, in addition to Monserrat Sánchez and Adriana Clemente Mejía, I would like to acknowledge the helpful contributions of Javier Roque Vázquez Juárez and Patricia Ochoa Vázquez, as well as Mariana Sainz Pacheco, a former member of the research department. At the MUNAL, Miguel Fernández Félix, Fernando Corona, Lluvia Sepúlveda, Víctor Rodríguez, Karina Gómez, Arturo López, Abigaíl Molleda, and Fabiola Hernández have all been tremendously accommodating. I also extend my most heartfelt thanks to Andrés Blaisten and Renata Blaisten for having allowed me access to the Fondo Díaz de León while it was still in the process of being organized and catalogued and for permitting me to use images from the collection to illustrate this study. I am likewise grateful to Jean Espinosa at the Colección Blaisten for his invaluable assistance. The staff at the Benson Library at the University of Texas at Austin was enormously helpful during a visit in 2008, especially Jorge Salinas, Craig Schroer, and Margo Gutiérrez. The Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información de Artes Plásticas (CENIDIAP) generously allowed me access to their microfilms and archives, and I was fortunate to be able to work comfortably at the Biblioteca de la Artes of the Centro Nacional de las Artes. I am grateful to the staff, especially Claudia Jasso, Patricia Bramvilla, and Jacqueline Romero. Other Mexican or Mexico-based scholars who have generously shared their wisdom include Carla Zurián, Tomás Zurián, Silvia Pappe, Laura González Matute, Evodio Escalante, Refugio Solís, Yanna Haddaty Mora, Sofía Rosales, Alicia Azuela, Renato González Mello, Francisco Reyes Palma, Judíth Alanís, Salomon Grimberg, Natalia de la Rosa, Pam Scheinman, and the late Ricardo Pérez Escamilla.
I thank the following individuals, who have been instrumental in helping me secure images and permissions in Mexico: Alejandra Peña of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA); Taiyana Pimentel and Mónica Montes of the Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros; Sandra Peña Haro and Jesica Martínez of the IISUE-UNAM; Consuelo Fernández of SURA; Alejandro Martínez Carrera and Claudia Salas of the Dirección de Asuntos Jurídicos, INBA; María Eugenia Bermúdez de Ferrer and Juan Carlos Pereda of the Fundación Olga y Rufino Tamayo; Martín Rojas Hernández of the Museo de Arte de Tlaxcala; Luz Estela Hernández Téllez of the Coordinación del Patrimonio Cultural del Estado de Tlaxcala; Governor Mario González Zarur of Tlaxcala; María Patiño Richart and Silvia Rodríguez of the Museo de Aguascalientes; Saturnino Herrán Gudiño; José Luis Lugo; Ysabel Fernández; Andrés Herrera Mejía; Claudia Nájera Rivas; Jimena Salatiel; Dolores Cobielles; Brenda Tenorio; Andrés Siegel; and Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera. I am grateful as well to the Fideicomiso Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo of the Banco de México for allowing the reproduction of works by these artists. In the United States, I thank Spencer Throckmorton and Norberto Rivera of Throckmorton Fine Art for their generosity and support. I am also grateful to Dan Pollock at the Cecilia de Torres Gallery; Denise Gose and Tammy Carter at the Center for Creative Photography; Maria Gaztambide and Maria McGreger at the International Center for the Arts of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Liz Kurtulik at Art Resource; Brooks Rich at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Jessica McDonald and Anne Bast at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Jana Hill at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art; and Jacqueline Zorn at the Naples Museum of Art.
I am grateful to colleagues and editors who have read and commented on my work. Among them I thank Alejandro Anreus, Robin Adèle Greeley, Leonard Folgarait, Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, Michael Schuessler, Elizabeth Hutchinson, Edward J. Sullivan, Mary K. Coffey, Sarah Elliston Weiner, Daniel Shapiro, and Peggy Barlow. The support of David Craven was always much appreciated; he was a keen critic and insightful reader, and his passing is a great loss to the field. I have benefited greatly from conversations with Karen Cordero Reiman, James Oles, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, Vicky Unruh, Deborah Caplow, Jennifer Jolly, and Rubén Gallo, which have shaped the development of this study. I am also deeply grateful to Yale University Press, especially Patricia Fidler, Katherine Boller, Heidi Downey, and Mary Mayer, as well as the anonymous readers whose incisive critiques helped me improve the manuscript. In addition, I thank Duke Johns for his careful copyediting.
This book has had a lot of help from my friends in the field, and no amount of thanks could convey the appreciation that I feel toward them. Tamara Sears has been a generous and supportive friend and insightful reader. I am also grateful to the continued friendship of colleagues that I met while on the faculty at Florida State University, including Lilian Garcia-Roig, Robinson Herrera, Karen Bearor, Stephanie Leitch, Elisa C. Mandell, and Leigh Edwards. From my days as a graduate student, I am fortunate to have made wonderful friends whose support helped this project grow and blossom, including Terri Weissman, Elizabeth Watson, Claudia Calirman, Harper Montgomery, Aleca LeBlanc, and Odile Cisneros. I am also grateful to Tatiana Seijas, a friend since college. Through my ongoing collaboration with Art Nexus, I have access to a wonderful community of critics and artists who have contributed to this project, among them Marisol Martell, Richard Leslie, Charmaine Picard, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, who generously invited me to his studio to discuss his art and allowed me to reproduce two images here.
Over the years, I have been welcomed in Mexico by loving families who have treated me as one of their own. María Waleska Vivas, Antonio Peña, and Valentina Peña were my first hosts, and it was their love and generosity that made me feel like I belonged in Mexico from the moment I left the airport. León Felipe García Corona devoted countless hours to helping me with my research and providing moral support. This project could not have been completed without his unflagging encouragement. Cristina Corona Ortega is one of my surrogate mothers in Mexico. I always know that I will find a home with her. I thank Cristina García Corona, Carlos Sánchez González, and their children Carlitos and Andrea for looking after me in Mexico and worrying when they did not hear from me. My second mother in Mexico is Edith Márquez Rodríguez, my role model in countless ways. I am grateful for her hospitality, offered time and time again, and for the friendship and support of her children Rafael Simón and María Elena Pereyra Márquez. On recent visits I have been welcomed by two dear friends, Perla Krauze and Irene Clouthier. I am blessed to have all of these wonderful people in my life.
Finally, I wish to acknowledge my crazy, magical, loving family. In Caracas, a group of women whom I adore are my light and inspiration: Yolanda Flores, Raiza Andrade, Ana Dolores Nuñez, Gabina Molina, Piedad Calle de Jiménez, and Zaira de Andrade, you are always in my heart. Also in Caracas, my in-laws Paúl Romero Cabrera and Ilse Bello de Romero are pillars of support and affection. Closer to home, Blanca Martínez is a dear confidant. My beloved siblings Leonardo Flores and Ifigenia Flores, who have helped me enormously, are my most loyal, unconditional allies. My love and gratitude toward my parents, Jorge Flores and Aura Graciela Andrade, would fill the pages of countless volumes. I am so happy that we are together in this life. And to Paúl Ignacio Romero and Allegra, who put up with me, my appreciation knows no bounds. I will always love you all.
Acknowledgments
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