Post Neo Mexicanisms – Phase 2

The second phase of Post Neo Mexicanisms was curated by Willy Kautz as part of the ESPAC Contemporary Painting Program.

The exhibition Post Neo Mexicanisms comprises a selection of works from the ESPAC Collection, plus some new acquisitions from its Contemporary Painting Program. The narrative proposed by the title of this museographic proposal, divided into two phases, acts as a clear historiographic indication, situating us after the so-called neo-Mexicanism; however, any chronological ordering of artworks is avoided.

This period, understood as Mexican postmodernity, gave rise to the configuration of a milieu of iconographic, parodic, and critical forays that disrupted official imagery to such a degree, some historians would later define these attitudes or processes as “denationalizing.” Positioned on the verge of said chapter in local art history, this program has as its objective to review the relationship between painting in Mexico and the advent of conceptualist trends during the 1990s. To that end, Post Neo Mexicanisms has generated two exhibitions and a series of interviews and studio visits, as well as conversations both public and private with featured artists. The final phase of this proposed survey of painting in the 1990s will consist of a publication. In general terms, the title Post Neo Mexicanisms invites us to reflect on painting in Mexico following its denationalization.