Of all the eyebrow-raising niches an artist can carve out for themselves, Guadalajara native Martha Pacheco, without touching on sex or religion, has chosen one of the most unusual and taboo.
But how can one claim that Pacheco doesn’t touch on sexuality when many of her 165 paintings and drawings on exhibit at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ) depict nudes and full genital exposure?
The answer lies in the artist’s favored subject matter — dead bodies in morgues and patients in mental hospitals. And the obvious truth is that neither dead bodies riddled with bullet holes and undergoing autopsies nor living bodies disfigured by mental illness are animated by much sexual attractiveness.
The show nevertheless has appeal and it may be something other than the appeal of stopping on the highway to look at a traffic accident. Perhaps the appeal springs from curiosity as to what leads an artist to focus on such subject matter. (Part of the answer may lie in the traumatic youth that the artist is said to have had.) Perhaps it is Pachecho’s impressive command of her media, especially the mastery of charcoal in her black and white drawings.
Pacheco is sometimes called realistic and in fact many of her paintings and drawings seem at first glance to be photos. But a little of her work is clearly imaginary — for example, a cadaver floating in a morgue, or a bizarre reptilian human in the painting at the entrance. Perhaps these are the ones that earn her the label expressionist.
It is a large exhibition representing two decades of work and it becomes increasingly disturbing as the visitor gets farther in. In that respect, it is a bit like the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. So don’t go if you’re in a bad mood because, whatever positive things one can say about the show, you won’t leave it feeling good. After all, Pacheco painted unclaimed bodies in the Guadalajara morgue and it would take a saint to look with equanimity on the remains of people who clearly suffered a lot.
“Exposicion Antologica” shows until December 31 at MAZ, 166 Andador 20 de noviembre, just east of the plaza of the Basilica de La Virgen de Zapopan. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 13 pesos to enter. Tuesdays free. (33) 3818-2575