마리아 이스끼에르도: 비주얼 컬처, 초현실적, 젠더

María Izquierdo: Visual culture, Surrealism, Gender

Research on María Izquierdo may be regarded as a discussion on indigenismo, which emerged from numerous Mexican artists’ resistance to colonial arts since the Mexican Revolution, but it is rather a study on Mexican female artists’ conflicts and struggles with contemporary Mexican male artists. From this standpoint, globally spotlighted artists Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, etc. are mentioned as painters fit for the exhibition planned by Dawn Ades under the title “Mexico, Women and Surrealism.” Among them, Izquierdo is considered a representative female painter who directly challenged the male dominant circle of art in Mexico. It is because Izquierdo’s life was a series of trials and struggles. When she was warned by Diego Rivera during the days of the Academy, she defied the warning and walked out of the Academy. In the same way, separating from Tamayo, she displayed her abilities as a painter without being baffled by people’s gossiping. She unfolded her view of art stately in front of Breton, and although she was boycotted by the muralists who insisted, “How can a woman draw a mural,” she completed murals at last and clarified her position in a newspaper. If Izquierdo was a male artist, she might have lived a different life and created different styles of works. Thus, a discussion on Izquierdo may be a process of diagnosing her life as a woman and at the same time as an artist. The present study characterized Izquierdo’s artistic tendency by ‘visual culture’ in concert with Tamayo, ‘surrealism’ in concert with Artaud, and ‘gender’ interpreted as sexual identity. What is remarkable is that the three tendencies branched into Izquierdo’s life and were interwoven with one another like the fingers locked together. For this reason, it is not reasonable to interpret Izquierdo’s works within a specific trend of thought (modernism, avant garde, surrealism or indigenismo). Rather it was visual culture and a surreal world absorbed and filtered in the life of the Mexican female artist Izquierdo in the 1930s and 1940s.

Research on María Izquierdo may be regarded as a discussion on indigenismo, which emerged from numerous Mexican artists’ resistance to colonial arts since the Mexican Revolution, but it is rather a study on Mexican female artists’ conflicts and struggles with contemporary Mexican male artists. From this standpoint, globally spotlighted artists Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, etc. are mentioned as painters fit for the exhibition planned by Dawn Ades under the title “Mexico, Women and Surrealism.” Among them, Izquierdo is considered a representative female painter who directly challenged the male dominant circle of art in Mexico. It is because Izquierdo’s life was a series of trials and struggles. When she was warned by Diego Rivera during the days of the Academy, she defied the warning and walked out of the Academy. In the same way, separating from Tamayo, she displayed her abilities as a painter without being baffled by people’s gossiping. She unfolded her view of art stately in front of Breton, and although she was boycotted by the muralists who insisted, “How can a woman draw a mural,” she completed murals at last and clarified her position in a newspaper. If Izquierdo was a male artist, she might have lived a different life and created different styles of works. Thus, a discussion on Izquierdo may be a process of diagnosing her life as a woman and at the same time as an artist. The present study characterized Izquierdo’s artistic tendency by ‘visual culture’ in concert with Tamayo, ‘surrealism’ in concert with Artaud, and ‘gender’ interpreted as sexual identity. What is remarkable is that the three tendencies branched into Izquierdo’s life and were interwoven with one another like the fingers locked together. For this reason, it is not reasonable to interpret Izquierdo’s works within a specific trend of thought (modernism, avant garde, surrealism or indigenismo). Rather it was visual culture and a surreal world absorbed and filtered in the life of the Mexican female artist Izquierdo in the 1930s and 1940s.