Portrait of María Asúnsolo Descending a Staircase
David Alfaro Siqueiros 1935
From the collection of
Museo Nacional de Arte
This painting, which depicts an older woman with an imposing, studied bearing who has shed every vestige of childhood or adolescence, may be the most celebrated of all the works of art inspired by María Asúnsolo. Framed by heavy red curtains, the subject is carefully descending a staircase, delicately bunching up her skirts with her right hand, as she holds a handkerchief in the right one. The composition has a theatrical, perhaps even cinematographic, touch. María, treading firmly and wearing a long gold-and-white dress that clings to her curvaceous body, is making a grand entrance, trying to attract everyones gaze with an insouciant look on her face that makes her seem remote and hushes those around her. In this large-scale work, Siqueiros experiments with color contrasts and variations in tone in order to make the light-dappled figure of María -who occupies the base of a triangular format that dominates the whole composition- stand out more dramatically. Her sinuous body and gait constitute a clear reference to the early- XXth century painting entitled Nude Descending the Staircase by the French artist, Marcel Duchamp, from whom Siqueiros borrowed the idea of devoting a whole painting to the subject of simultaneous movement. A dedicatory note in the bottom right-hand corner of this portrait reads "To my beloved, unforgettable María Asúnsolo", along with a coded message (C.T.M.E.Y.M.C.) that almost certainly stands for "Con toda mi estimación y mi cariño' (With all my appreciation and affection), words that bear witness to the enormous fondness that Siqueiros felt, throughout his life, for his subject. This painting was acquired by the National Fine Arts Institute and remitted to the MUNAL in 1988.
Details
Title: Portrait of María Asúnsolo Descending a Staircase
Date Created: 1935
painter: David Alfaro Siqueiros
Provenance: National Fine Arts Institute, 1988
Physical Dimensions: w1220 x h2150 mm (complete)
Original Spanish object note: Dentro de todo el imaginario plástico que inspiró María Asúnsolo quizá ésta sea la obra más célebre y conocida. En el retrato aparece una dama madura de porte imponente y estilizado que se ha desprendido de todos aquellos elementos que podrían identificarla con una niña o una adolescente. María Asúnsolo baja cuidadosamente la escalera, con delicadeza toma con su mano derecha la falda del vestido, mientras que con la izquierda sostiene un pañuelo. Al fondo se observan los pesados cortinajes rojos que enmarcan su protagonismo. La composición contiene un carácter teatral e incluso se percibe un enfoque cinematográfico. María con paso firme porta un traje largo en tonos dorados y blancos que entallan su cuerpo curvilíneo, hace una entrada majestuosa y con un gesto indiferente intenta atraer todas las miradas. Esta actitud impone una inevitable distancia en medio de una atmósfera silenciosa. En este cuadro de gran formato, Siqueiros hizo un juego con los contrastes de color y sus tonalidades para resaltar de forma más puntual los toques de luz a partir del cuerpo de María, quien encabeza una forma triangular que rige toda la composición. La ondulación de su cuerpo y su paso tienen una clara referencia visual con la pintura de Marcel Duchamp Desnudo bajando una escalera, realizada en la primera década del siglo XX. Siqueiros tomó del artista francés la idea de simultaneidad de movimientos y su glorificación dentro de una sola obra. El retrato está dedicado en el margen inferior derecho "A mi adorada e inolvidable María Asúnsolo" y tiene un mensaje criptado (C.T.M.E.Y.M.C), que con seguridad significa "Con toda mi estimación y mi cariño", palabras que atestiguan el enorme afecto que Siqueiros sintió por ella a lo largo de su vida. La pintura fue adquirida por el Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes en 1988.
Original title: Retrato de María Asúnsolo bajando la escalera
Type: Painting
Rights: Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA, http://www.munal.com.mx/rights.html
Medium: Duco on plywood

David Alfaro Siqueiros
Dec 29, 1896 - Jan 6, 1974

David Alfaro Siqueiros was a Mexican social realist painter, better known for his large murals in fresco. Along with Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, he established "Mexican Muralism." He was a Stalinist and member of the Mexican Communist Party who participated in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Leon Trotsky in May 1940.
His surname would normally be Alfaro by Spanish naming customs; like Picasso and Lorca, Siqueiros used his mother's surname. It was long believed that he was born in Camargo in Chihuahua state, but in 2003 it was proven that he had actually been born in the city of Chihuahua, but grew up in Irapuato, Guanajuato, at least from the age of six. The discovery of his birth certificate in 2003 by a Mexican art curator was announced the following year by art critic Raquel Tibol, who was renowned as the leading authority on Mexican Muralism and who had been a close acquaintance of Siqueiros. Siqueiros changed his given name to "David" after his first wife called him by it in allusion to Michelangelo's David. Another factual confusion is the year of his birth: he was born in 1896, but many sources state 1898 or 1899.
http://hisour.com/art-medium/paintings/4347/