Helen Escobido

Happy Birthday Helen Escobido!

The sculptor and installation artist Helen Escobedo was born July 28, 1934, in Mexico City to parents  of mixed race: her father a Mexican lawyer and her mother English. Home schooled until age ten, Helen studied ballet, violin and finally art. She received a scholarship to London, where she studied for 3 years. At age 20, Helen Escobedo had her Master's degree in sculpture from the Royal College of Art, in London. In addition to sculpture, she was an accomplished painter, printmaker, writer, curator, etc.  She served as director of Museo de Arte Moderno and also museums and galleries of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. 

Her own work focused on ecological and urban problems.  After one of her traveling exhibits returned in ruined condition, she decided to create site specific temporary works. Her projects have been displayed all over the world. She has also written articles and even coordinated a book on Mexican Monuments, documenting her Mexican heritage. During her life she also won awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1991 for Creative Arts, Latin America and Caribbean.

Agustin Casasola

Happy Birthday Agustin Casasola!

Born on July 28, 1874, Agustin Casasola was first a typographer for a newspaper, then a reporter and finally settled on photography as his career. He is credited for founding Mexico's first press agency: Agencia Fotografia Mexicana. Later he helped found the Mexican Association of Press Photographers. In the early 1900's Casasloa was involved in compiling thousands of photographs from the Mexican Civil War. The collection named "Casasola Archive" is housed at The National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico. 

Casasola's work began with the photography of elite society, but then he turned to more socially and historically significant work. One particularly memorable instance was captured when he climbed a pole and photographed three assassins' execution over a prison wall.

Two of Casasola's sons went on to become photographers too, and it is sometimes unclear which photograph belongs to whom...

Sofia Bassi

Happy Birthday Sofia Bassi!

Actually born on July 28, in 1913, Sofia Bassi was a Surrealist painter, from Veracruz. She studied psychology at La Esmeralda, but then began to teach herself to paint. She changed her name from Mendoza to Bassi for professional reasons, Bassi was married twice, convicted of murdering her daughter Claire's husband (it was believed that it was really Claire who shot him), and served 5 years in prison. While in prison she painted her first of two murals. After her release she continued to write and paint.

Bassi's painting sometimes described as "magical impressionism" depicts surreal landscapes and lost cities. She described her art "as an elixir that she wanted to drink until the end of her career to keep her from dying."

Bassi has had many exhibitions of her work and was included in several books. She was a member of The World's Human Rights Committee and received an award for her work with the elderly.

Ilse Gradwohl

Happy Birthday Ilse Gradwohl!

Born in 1943, in Austria, Ilse Gradwohl relocated to Mexico in 1973. Here she studied art at National Autonomous University of Mexico. Gradwohl became a painter and had her first solo show "Mnesis" in 1966, at Museo de Arte Moderno. She has had many exhibits since.

Florentina Lopez de Jesus

Happy Birthday Florentina Lopez de Jesus!

Born on July 25, 1939, in Guerrero, into a poor Amuzgo weaving family. She began to learn how to weave cotton clothing of the area from her mother by the age of 6. "Backstrap" was the method of weaving used in the area...with a strap around the weaver's back then the *"warp" strings attached to a post or tree, creating the tension needed to weave tightly. was Florentina saw the future in weaving and began to sell items in a nearby city. Her reputation built as she taught and took classes in spinning, dyeing, etc. She was the initial founder of the first weaving cooperative for women in her town. She became a community representative and stood up for the rights of indigenous women.

"Tina's" (as she became known) specialty was the white cotton garments with colored *"weft" patterns woven in, as well as "coyuche" the local brown favorite. Special fibers such as silk were used on request. She won several awards for her weaving as well as her community work. Florentina Lopez de Jesus died at age 74 from a heart attack.

**warp-vertical strings in a weaving.
**weft-horizontal strings in a weaving.

Rocio Caballero

Happy Birthday Rocio Caballero!

The painter Rocio Caballero was born in Mexico City on June 1 (I missed her in June,,,) 1964. She began painting as a young woman and studied at La Esmeralda. She became a figurative painter even though most of her classmates at the time were interested in abstract art. The mask has become a symbol in Caballero's work for the condition of man.  She prefers to be considered an artist only, instead of a artist". In Caballero's own words, "I like to see everyone and all art as individuals".

She has exhibited all over the US and Mexico. Caballero tends to work in series and her most well known is the "Gray Code" which was developed over a period of 10 years. Inspired by the ideal "yuppie" that she had no experience with but wanted to explore, the 30 part series explores the social and psychological constructs of business and politics. I am including El Hombre y su Traje today...

Wolfgang Paalen

Happy Birthday Wolfgang Paalen!

The German/Austrian/Mexican painter, sculptor and art theorist Wolfgang Paalen was born on July 22, 1905. He came from a wealthy family, his father an inventor (the vacuum cleaner and the thermos, etc.) his mother an actress. His father became a well known collector of Old Master paintings, acquiring several very important works. The association with artists exposed Wolfgang to new, inspiring acquaintances.

The family moved around, from Vienna to Stryia, then Berlin, and finally in 1919, to Rome. Here Paalen received his first art training and also became an expert in Greek and Roman archaeology. He studied in Paris, settling there. He became friends with Andre Breton and also became a Surrealist painter, using his hallucinations as inspirations for his work. He is credited with developing the art of "fumage" and exhibited the first of this technique in London, in 1936. He worked with several well known Surrealist artists and philosophers during the years 1936-1939, before he relocated to Mexico with his new friends Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

Paalen eventually had a fall out with Kahlo and Rivera related to their political beliefs. He continued to hone his theories on his art and exhibited in New York. He also founded an art journal "DYN" and came out with his "Farewell to Surrealism". As he moved away from Surrealism, Paalen began to develop a new approach to abstract art...that of Abstract Expressionism.

Certainly Paalen's career can be considered art philosopher just as much as artist. He helped shape and develop Surrealism in the late 30's, then Abstract Expressionism in the 40's, but more importantly delineated and justified the creations. Sadly during one of his depressions, Paalen took his own life at age 54. He will be remembered for his great contributions to the developing Contemporary art world.

**Fumage: creation of images using the soot produced by a candle onto canvas to dictate and guide the painting.

Les Etrangers