After looking at 70 impressive, bold paintings done by Hector Navarro over the course of his six decades of artistic trajectory and a 30-year teaching career, it is hard to imagine him having a bad day.
But if he ever does, he can think about the entrance design created for his exhibition “Antología Secreta” (Secret Anthology) at the University of Guadalajara’s MUSA—as striking an homage as you can imagine for the recently retired UdG professor (and alumnus) in fine arts and architecture.
This is far from the first solo show of Navarro, who is described as a figurative abstractionist taking his cues from one of the most venerable in that genre—Pablo Picasso. Navarro told Milenio newspaper he was born on the day Picasso began his famed “Guernica,” and felt that it “marked me as a painter”—apparently with its style but not necessarily its political orientation, as Navarro has generally steered clear of movements and social commentary. (This seems true of Picasso too, as the war theme of “Guernica” was unusual in his work.)
Navarro’s biography notes that he has exhibited in important museums in North and South America and Europe. With such a broad trajectory, one naturally wonders what could be “secret” about this exhibition. But the artist and curators readily enlighten us on that point, stating that for the most part the pieces have never before been exhibited, despite Navarro’s many shows. The artist had the paintings in his own keeping over the years from the 1970s to recently.
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