Portrait of María Asúnsolo as a Child David Alfaro Siqueiros 1935

Portrait of María Asúnsolo as a Child
David Alfaro Siqueiros 1935
From the collection of
Museo Nacional de Arte
In this work, Siqueiros portrays a little girl in a white, pleated dress who is resting her chin on one hand while holding onto the table with the other. This piece, in which the subjects enormous eyes, well-defined nose, small mouth and slightly wavy hair adorned with white ribbons are clearly depicted, transforms María Asúnsolo, muse and patroness of the arts, back into a child, endowing her with a face that is the epitome of childish restlessness. Inspired by a period photograph, this portrait is a variation on the works executed by the artist in the nineteen thirties, which feature faces in close-up, broad brushstrokes, grainy photograph- like surfaces, the use of volume, meticulous drawing, and chiaroscuro. In this painting -which expresses Siqueiros' devotion to, and admiration for, this woman who played such a key role in the development of Mexican art in the first half of the XXth century- the Chihuahua-born artist is both formulating a paradigm of perfection and paying homage to his subject, whose beauty he wishes to preserve for posterity. The National Fine Arts Institute acquired this piece in 1988, in order that it might be included in the MUNAL's collection of works devoted to María Asúnsolo.
Details
Title: Portrait of María Asúnsolo as a Child
Date Created: 1935
painter: David Alfaro Siqueiros
Provenance: National Fine Arts Institute, 1988
Physical Dimensions: w750 x h1000 mm (complete)
Original Spanish object note: David Alfaro Siqueiros representó en este retrato a una niña con vestido blanco de alforzas, quien pone una mano sobre su barbilla mientras con la otra se apoya sobre una mesa. Se pueden advertir claramente los enormes ojos, la nariz, una boca pequeña y un cabello ligeramente ondulado y decorado con moños blancos. Esta obra traslada la personalidad de la musa y promotora de las artes María Asúnsolo a la infancia, ya que su rostro sintetiza la inquietud propia de la niñez. Inspirada en una fotografía de época, esta pintura es una variación de los retratos que el artista elaboraba en la década de los años treinta: los rostros en acercamiento, la utilización de una pincelada gruesa, la textura de la superficie pictórica, el tratamiento de los volúmenes, el dibujo preciso y los claroscuros. Siqueiros plasma un ideal de perfección al mismo tiempo que realiza un homenaje personal buscando eternizar a María. De igual forma, resume la inspiración, el amor y la devoción del artista chihuahuense por esta mujer clave en el desarrollo del arte mexicano de la primera mitad del siglo XX. La obra fue adquirida por el Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes en 1988 para integrarse al MUNAL en la colección de obras dedicadas a María Asúnsolo.
Original title: Retrato de María Asúnsolo niña
Type: Painting
Rights: Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA, http://www.munal.com.mx/rights.html
Medium: Pyroxylin on masonite

Museo Nacional de Arte
Ciudad de México, Mexico

National Museum of Art

The National Museum of Art (MUNAL), founded in 1982 and located in the historical center of Mexico City, hosts the most important collection of Mexican art in the country. The collection was created by merging the national stock the National Fine Arts Institute (INBA) had held since 1946, which, in turn, came from a variety of institutions, the Modern Art Museum, the San Carlos Museum, and the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery.

At present the MUNAL’s collection consists of more than 3,551 works, including among them magnificent exemplars of painting, sculpture, engraving and drawing, as well as folk art and photography, some of which are veritable masterpieces. Moreover, the museum hosts works from María Izquierdo, José María Velasco, Saturnino Herrán, Gerardo Murillo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, seven of those nine artists whose works are considered to constitute an “Artistic Monument”.

The outstanding collection of Viceregal art that is now in the National Museum of Art was assembled in two phases, the first lasting from 1982 to 1988, when the museum was founded, and the second as on 1999, when the collection of the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery became part of our museum’s stock. Thanks to that the MUNAL has become the depositary of the most important collection of colonial art in Mexico.

This collection dates back to 1783, when the Academy San Carlos was founded. In 1820, the collection of the aforesaid teaching institution was enriched by works originating from the recently closed establishments of the Hospitaller congregations. The collection continued to be extended by other works, from various convents, that ended up in the museum during the War of Independence, and also by those bought in 1843, when the Academy profited from the income it received from the National Lotery. The paintings that came from the convents that were closed down under the Reform promulgated by Benito Juarez in 1859 were also added to the Academy’s stock.

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/portrait-of-maria-asunsolo-as-a-child-david-alfaro-siqueiros-1935/