Starting this Friday, the San Ildefonso School in Mexico City is presenting a monumental exhibition that brings together the work of the Oaxacan painter Sergio Hernández, one of the greatest exponents of modern Mexican art. This exhibition is the most important and complete shown in Mexico to date and includes unpublished works by the creator from Huajapan de León, a member of the so-called Oaxacan School of Painting, of which he and Francisco Toledo are among the main exponents. It is a selection of 143 works that offer a journey through the mystical universe of Hernández, his passion for mythology and the tragic and epic history of his country, but also his love for nature, a reflection on his resilience in the face of destruction, to which he was exposed Man subdues it.
Open to the public Friday through the end of January, the exhibition includes a tour of seven rooms in this beautiful Viceroyal Building, one of the most impressive palaces in Mexico City’s historic center, the work of the company’s Jesus Mission after the Spanish conquest. The exhibition is divided into four sections that provide an insight into the creative phases of Hernández. It begins with history, a presentation of the pre-Columbian and post-Hispanic codices that interprets the inhabitants’ mystical vision of what later became known as New Spain, as well as the process of conquest and the birth of a new mixed culture. Also in this section is his collection of works on Benito Juárez, a revered figure in Mexican politics, an innovator whose figure is used by all politicians in Mexico. Hernández presents a critical and even comical vision of Juárez, a ubiquitous figure who “is in the politicians’ imagination. He’s a real character, but he’s also a political fantasy.
The other sections of the exhibition include universes showing his nightscapes and works created to emulate his vision of the world, his dreams and aspirations. There is also mythology and nature, the painter’s homage to an environment that is rapidly dying at the hands of man. Because Hernández defines himself as a “pessimist” and not only regrets this destruction of nature, but also the violence that hits the inhabitants of his country, but also the tens of thousands of migrants who travel through Mexico every day in search of a dream do not reach “It seems that we live with the ‘Peter Pan Syndrome’ that leaves us with a moral: Many people are still children because we don’t fight for our freedom,” Hernández explained on Wednesday during a guided tour for journalists. “This country is in limbo,” he added. “In this country we are beheaded, we live a violence that we did not know. There is death, death of migrants. It’s a drama. We take violence for granted. A pessimistic vision that the author explained in an interview with EL PAÍS: “In the world, people no longer want truths, they want lies.”
Tour of the exhibition of the painter Sergio Hernández. Photo: NADYA MURILLO | Video: Courtesy
Visiting the exhibition, which extends over 1,103 square meters in seven rooms at the Colegio de San Ildefonso, means immersing yourself in the particular vision that Hernández has of history, with its tears and its epic but also painful news. For example, he relates that his interest in the codices dates back to before the beginning of the conquest, when some anthropologists invited him to take part in work on the ancient Templo Mayor, where valuable documents were found, furthering his interest in this important part of Mexican history woke up. a moment of its creation full of mysticism, colors, a passion for what Mexico was before the European encounter. “Sergio Hernández’s astounding creativity translates myth into stunning plastic imagination. “His versions of the myth of the European savage are fascinating as he creates a variety of figures and symbols that live in a wonderful yet terrifying world,” said Mexican anthropologist Roger Bartra, whose work influenced Hernández’s work.
The works shown in this exhibition are monumental and occupy large spaces Colonial Halls of San Ildefonso and they exemplify the mastery achieved by Oaxacan painters in Mexican fine arts. “The artist preserves fertile imagination, ingenuity and freedom of expression, and balances them with refined techniques and a spirit of constant renewal; The result is a distinctive language and style, guided by a strong sense of figurative composition,” explain the exhibition curators. “His work is linked to the most innovative artistic currents in contemporary art; In it, therefore, one finds the essence of Oaxacan art and its deepest elements and values,” he added. Open until January 28th, the exhibition is an opportunity to pay tribute to one of the most representative living artists in Mexican art.
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