Abstract

ECKMANN, Teresa. Javier de la Garza and Alejandro Arango: Reevaluating Signs of Identity. An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2005, vol.27, n.86, pp.55-93. ISSN 0185-1276.

Examining the artwork, sources of inspiration, and artistic philosophies of artists Alejandro Arango, and Javier de la Garza in this article, the author shows that subversion is a key aspect of the so-called neo-Mexicanist current of the 1980s. The author focuses on a series of paintings comprising Arango's La conquista (The Conquest) and De la Garza's Inocencia perdida (Lost Innocence), exhibitions presented in Mexico City at the Galería OMR in the mid-1 980s. What motivates each artist's particular treatment of a common theme-the Conquest-is revealed. Showing how Arango and De la Garza's artwork challenges essentializing constructions of national identity, the author proposes that neo-Mexicanist art does not blindly praise, but at times blatantly parodies an official nationalism that glorifies the indigenous past while it ignores the largely disenfranchised indigenous presence.

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