The Dallas Museum of Art is hosting a wide range of art from a notable Mexican modernist from the 1920s in the first show of its kind in decades.
Abraham Ángel: Between Wonder and Seduction brings together nearly all of this artist’s captivating work on mexicanidad, or “Mexicanness,” under one roof. That roof happens to be that of the Chilton II Gallery, one of the Dallas Museum of Art’s (DMA) exhibit spaces.
Visitors have until January 28 to take in Ángel’s paintings exploring both individual and national identity against the backdrop of both urban and natural spaces. Urban life in Mexico City and the enduring legacy of indigenous culture are depicted using the specific visual style that his mentor, Adolfo Best Maugard, helped cultivate.
Ángel’s body of work is estimated to comprise 24 paintings, which he created during his brief career of just three years. He died of an apparent drug overdose in 1924 at the age of 19 after being spurned by his then-lover and fellow painter Manuel Rodríguez Lozano.
“Living in a society that was not ready for him, Ángel suffered harassment and discrimination during his lifetime, but his art embodies joy and vivacity while tracing Mexico’s transformation from rural to modernized,” said Agustín Arteaga, director of the DMA, according to a press release.
Art critic Brian T. Allen described the DMA show as “compact and sumptuous” in an article for the National Review. In viewing Ángel’s portraits and landscapes in chronological order, his distinct way of using thick lines and basic design elements to bring whimsical and yet cryptic scenes to life becomes apparent.
“As a colorist, Ángel is exceptional,” Allen said. “He uses lots of orange, purple, green, and blue, chromatically exaggerated and sometimes arbitrary.”
Tickets for non-members are $10 to view Abraham Ángel: Between Wonder and Seduction before it packs up and heads off to the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. DMA members can visit the exhibit for free.
