The friendship and work of two artists of international stature is the focus of a show at Guadalajara’s Instituto Cultural Cabañas, “Un encuentro de dos culturas” [An encounter of two cultures], which exhibits paintings, drawings and sculptures by Tamara Lempicka and Victor Manuel Contreras.
Lempicka, described as charming, sophisticated and fashionable, was 43 years older than Contreras when the two were introduced in 1958 at a gathering at the home of Prince Youssoupoff in Paris. Contreras, only 17, had been sent from his native Mexico for artistic education.
Contreras is certainly the better known of the two here in Guadalajara, where his “Inmolación de Quetzalcoatl” [Sacrifice of Quetzalcoatl], an elongated, twisting bronze form surrounded by abstract bird-snakes, graces a fountain in the Plaza Tapatia, not far outside the entrance of Instituto Cultural Cabañas.However, Contreras has probably achieved more recognition outside of Mexico than inside, and has sculpted a number of monumental metallic pieces in such places as New York, Denver, and Los Angeles. He received France’s highest artistic honor, Knight of the Legion of Honor, for his sculpture and painting. He has also done many sculptures in Mexico and in recent years has resided in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Although the show doesn’t contain a lot of Lempicka’s work — one roomful — these paintings, drawings and silk screen prints reveal her as an artist steeped in fashion design. Indeed, her biographers mention how fond she was of wearing stunning evening dresses. Her predilection for Art Deco is in line with this interest and indeed many of her pieces in the show, including the portraits, are executed with an eye-catching, magazine-like flair. (She later employed abstract and spatula styles.)
Lempicka was born to a privileged family in Warsaw, lived in various places in Europe, married a Russian lawyer and later a Hungarian baron, fled the Russian Revolution and later the Nazi regime, and lived her later years in the United States and, like Contreras, in Cuernavaca. There, she asked her old friend to place her ashes after death on Mt. Popocatepetl. Contreras fulfilled her wishes in 1980, when she died at 82 years old.
The three rooms devoted to “Un encuentro de dos culturas” offer a tantalizing glimpse of the middle of the 20th century, with its opportunities and cataclysms, through the eyes of two privileged artists.
Shows until October 21. Instituto Cultural Cabañas also contains famed murals by Jose Clemente Orozco.
Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Cabañas 8, Plaza Tapatía, Guadalajara. (33) 3818-2800, ext. 31009 or 31051. Tuesday–Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Monday. Foreigners 70 pesos; Mexicans 45 pesos; seniors with INAPAM credential 20 pesos; free entrance on Tuesday; photographic pass 30 pesos. Tours offered every half hour.