Javier De La Garza And Alejandro Arango: Reevaluating Signs Of Identity

Abstract

Examining the artwork, sources of inspiration, and artistic philosophies of artists Alejandro Arango, and Javier de la Garza in this article, the author shows that subversion is a key aspect of the so-called neo-Mexicanist current of the 1980s. The author focuses on a series of paintings comprising Arango's La conquista (The Conquest) and De la Garza's Inocencia perdida (Lost Innocence), exhibitions presented in Mexico City at the Galería omr in the mid-1 980s. What motivates each artist's particular treatment of a common theme—the Conquest—is revealed. Showing how Arango and De la Garza's artwork challenges essentializing constructions of national identity, the author proposes that neo-Mexicanist art does not blindly praise, but at times blatantly parodies an official nationalism that glorifies the indigenous past while it ignores the largely disenfranchised indigenous presence.