Luis Arenal Bastar
Woman Carrying a Coffin (Mujer cargando un ataúd)circa 1936

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Indigenismo in Latin America

Oil painting of a full-length female figure seen from behind, carrying a large angular vessel on her head while walking a narrow path at night, with a textured stone wall and moon at upper right

Artist or Maker: Luis Arenal Bastar
Mexico, 1909-1985
Title: Woman Carrying a Coffin (Mujer cargando un ataúd)
Place Made: Mexico
Date Made: circa 1936
Medium: Cellulose nitrate and oil on panel
Dimensions: Frame: 31 1/2 × 22 1/2 × 1 1/4 in. (80.01 × 57.15 × 3.18 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Electa Arenal and Julie Arenal Primus
Accession Number: M.2001.201
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Woman Carrying a Coffin depicts an Indigenous woman seemingly walking into infinity with a coffin on her head; the right side of the bifurcated composition depicts an evening sky created with a dripping technique, an unusual method that contributed to the eerie sense of the scene. Luis Arenal Bastar participated in the legendary Experimental Workshop of David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974) that was founded in New York in 1936. The workshop was designed as a laboratory for experimentation, and artists—including Jackson Pollock (M.51.5.7)—were encouraged to use unconventional materials such as industrial paint, as well as atypical pictorial methods such as pouring, dripping, and splattering, which created the effect of controlled accidents.

Ilona Katzew

2008
Selected Bibliography: Affron, Matthew, Mark A. Castro, Dafne Cruz Porchini, and Renato González Mello, eds. Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910-1950. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art; Mexico City: Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, 2016.
Copyright: © artist or artist's estate

Luis Arenal Bastar
Woman Carrying a Coffin (Mujer cargando un ataúd)circa 1936

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Indigenismo in Latin America

Artist or Maker: Luis Arenal Bastar
Mexico, 1909-1985
Title: Woman Carrying a Coffin (Mujer cargando un ataúd)
Place Made: Mexico
Date Made: circa 1936
Medium: Cellulose nitrate and oil on panel
Dimensions: Frame: 31 1/2 × 22 1/2 × 1 1/4 in. (80.01 × 57.15 × 3.18 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Electa Arenal and Julie Arenal Primus
Accession Number: M.2001.201
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Woman Carrying a Coffin depicts an Indigenous woman seemingly walking into infinity with a coffin on her head; the right side of the bifurcated composition depicts an evening sky created with a dripping technique, an unusual method that contributed to the eerie sense of the scene. Luis Arenal Bastar participated in the legendary Experimental Workshop of David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974) that was founded in New York in 1936. The workshop was designed as a laboratory for experimentation, and artists—including Jackson Pollock (M.51.5.7)—were encouraged to use unconventional materials such as industrial paint, as well as atypical pictorial methods such as pouring, dripping, and splattering, which created the effect of controlled accidents.

Ilona Katzew

2008
Selected Bibliography: Affron, Matthew, Mark A. Castro, Dafne Cruz Porchini, and Renato González Mello, eds. Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910-1950. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art; Mexico City: Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, 2016.