Win Tickets to The Marvellous Real: Art from Mexico Exhibit at MOA – October 25-March 20, 2014
Photo by Jennifer Webb
In 1949, the Cuban writer and ethno-musicologist, Alejo Carpentier (1904 – 1980), coined the term the “marvellous real” to describe a particular kind of magic realism that is manifest in the arts and everyday life of Latin America. Eluding the expected through bizarre amalgamations, improbable juxtapositions, and fantastic correlations, the marvellous real is, as Carpentier said, “neither beautiful nor ugly; rather, it is amazing because it is strange.”
Spanning eight decades of contemporary and modern art by artists living in Mexico, this extensive collection features a diverse array of media including painting, sculpture, mixed media, photography, video, and more. Highlights of the exhibition include artist Frida Kahlo’s oil and collage work Mi vestido cuelga aqui (1933, My Dress Hangs Here), Betsabeé Romero’s Serpiente (2004, Serpent) – a group of four engraved tractor tires, along with impressive works by Dr. Atl, Leonora Carrington, Jean Charlot, Juan O’Gorman, Alice Rahon, and more.
