Empty Galleries

As many galleries are being priced out of New York and San Francisco by high rents, many of the galleries here in San Miguel seem to be struggling to stay open. This statement is based almost solely on my own observations as I walk through centro and see empty galleries on a busy Saturday when the tourists are out in full force. The long-established galleries at the Fabrica Aurora art complex are doing okay, as are the larger and more diversified ones in centro. However, some marginal spaces have become hybrids in order to survive by selling furniture or other items.One such marginal gallery is attached to a mail service called La Connection on Calle Aldama, and another, the Atenea on Calle Jesus, sells real estate. Others survive because they are built into residences where the artists live (mostly in the neighborhoods of San Antonio and Guadalupe). There are at least two co-op galleries, Izamal on Calle Mesones and Magenta on Calle Zacateros, that are holding their own because they have members who share the cost of rent and advertising and are obligated to work a specified schedule per week. So far there are no galleries where selected artists pay a monthly fee for wall space, but I understand one is being organized. This concept has been used in the US for at least a decade now and the monthly fee is usually quite high. Gallerists/artists who run this type of collective space seem to do so in order to make a profit, and I believe a substantial one. I know of several artists who have opened galleries to show their own work as well as work by colleagues they admire, and an empty gallery is heartbreaking for them, but such is the situation right now. I have no idea why so many of the galleries here in San Miguel do not have more traffic, especially on a Saturday, unless there are simply too many of them.

Artists Living in Exile

For artists who live in exile from their native countries, a new perspective on the world deepens and enriches their work immeasurably. This is true for artists of every medium. However, music and the visual arts readily cross borders and transcend cultures because they do not depend on language to express ideas and emotions. My own experience as a poet and painter has taught me the artistic value of living and working in a foreign culture. In San Miguel, my eyes have been opened to new ways of seeing and expressing the universal truths about the human condition.

Many artists have fled their homeland for political or personal reasons. Others have simply left in search of a more congenial environment. Painters such as Amadeo Modigliani, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Marc Chagall, and Pablo Picasso found tremendous sources of inspiration in foreign lands.

The work of expatriate artists living in San Miguel is greatly enriched by the local Mexican culture. But there should be more cultural exchange, more give and take between the two cultures, Mexican and foreign. This situation seems to be a one-way stream with all of the advantages going to the expatriates. There should be a flow of ideas back into the culture of Mexico, but this doesn’t seem to be happening.

In Celebration of the City

AT THE NIGHT CAFÉ IN SAN MIGUEL

by A. S. Maulucci

Candles on the tables light joyous faces,

so much to enjoy in this city of feasting and fiestas

that the night revelers seem about to burst open with pleasure

like greenhouse flowers aching to bloom in the moonlight.

The beauty of the stars is there overhead

for those who wish to find some dark corner for gazing up at them.

But the sparkling lights here below are enough,

they obviate the stars almost,

and the Parroquia, that baroque church in the plaza principal,

spires up into flames,

too adoringly majestic to be endured.

Nearly everyone wants to be on display in the night café,

as if this were a rich and eternal tableau,

long bufandas wound like spangled serpents,

silk and cotton clinging caressingly to breasts,

bare arms slender or sinewy,

eyes shining, voices raucous or tender,

the camaraderie gushes like a rio.

The sleek young men peacock preen and strut,

the ripening young women glide by like so many cleopatras

out for a midnight stroll and content

to torture the cabrones who dare to ignore them. 

The gringos glut their senses on the pageantry of young love

and toss back another shot of tequila.

Someone strums a guitar and sings

a ballad of the pain and beauty of love.

Bright peals of laughter ring out,

love is a goddess and we are all her fools

the laughter seems to say,

and the night whispers estoy de acuerdo.

The Corrosive Effect of Cronyism

The San Miguel art scene is becoming more and more insular, even incestuous. The danger is clear: the corrosiveness of cronyism has invaded our community and threatens to undermine its artistic integrity. When pals, partners, spouses and lovers write articles about artists’ opening exhibits, honesty is shoved aside, objectivity is sacrificed, and hyperbole gains the upper hand. Our weekly newspaper, Atencion, aids and abets this deplorable situation by having an editorial policy (if you can call it that) which allows cronyism to flourish. They will publish just about any piece of journalistic jingoism in order to fill their pages with free content, all in the name of “public service.” Worst of all, artists are allowed to pen their own articles extolling the wonders and marvels of their latest creations. Sounds a bit like an old-fashioned medicine show, doesn’t it? “Come one, come all, and see my magnificent works of art!” 

My Secret Studio

Shouldn’t every serious artist have a secret studio, one where no one else is allowed entrance except for models, intimate friends, and a loved one? Yes, I emphatically believe this to be so. For me, creating art is a very private affair, and I certainly wouldn’t like having just anyone think they could enter into that process or are being invited to scrutinize works in progress. Helpful feedback in the form of sincere criticism might be what other artists are looking for when they throw open their space, but for me my studio is my sanctuary and only those with a special connection to me or my work are welcome here. I haven’t embraced the open studio concept, mostly because I don’t care to have members of the general art-loving public traipsing through my personal space. Here in San Miguel, the San Antonio art community is actively seeking artists who are interested in joining their group. I imagine membership entails paying fees to support advertising and other forms of promotion for their open studio tours. This smacks too much of commercialism and makes me uncomfortable. I am not a resident of the San Antonio neighborhood, but even if I were I would be very reluctant to join this group. By nature, I happen to be a very private person, and the idea of opening up my creative life to whomever wishes to come inside is anathema to me. If an art collector happens to be interested in my work a private meeting can always be arranged. I have no problem with welcoming someone who enjoys my work into my studio for a private viewing, a one-on-one discussion, and a glass of wine. Today’s fashion is to display everything in public. I’m not a total recluse, but I do guard my privacy fiercely, especially when it involves my creative life.  

Dolce Far Niente

San Miguel is a very lovely and vibrant place for an artist to live. Voted as the world’s best city by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler, it is indeed one of the most livable cities on the planet. All hype aside, it has many amenities – historic buildings, cobblestone streets, great restaurants, a cosmopolitan culture, old world charm, Mexican hospitality, balmy weather, and a minimum of urban blight. Artists like me love it here, and with good reason. There’s tremendous creative energy, an abundance of clear light, inexpensive studio space, many support groups, ample places for exhibiting, relative freedom from commercialism and competition, and a general sense of joie de vivre. It’s a great place to do one’s creative work. But one can also sit in the principal plaza, el jardin, soak up the ambience, watch the tourists, listen to music, sketch, or just sit back contentedly for a while and think, “dolce far niente,” how sweet to do nothing.

Artists Who Advertise

Several San Miguel artists have been following the promotional route of local businesses by placing advertisements in local publications such as Atencion, our bilingual newspaper, and The San Miguel Walking and Shopping Guide. Many of these same artists as well as others use web sites geared to tourists that list their studios/galleries in a directory and feature them for a hefty fee. It is a world-wide trend. Artists everywhere are using whatever outlet they can afford to promote their work to the general public in the hope that the exposure will bring them clients and ultimately lead to more sales. In today’s competitive climate, the conventional wisdom is that artists must brand themselves. Okay, fine, if they have a style that’s brand-able, but if the work looks pretty similar to most of the other work out there it doesn’t really make much sense to try to “brand” it. Branding should mean establishing the uniqueness of a product or service. And therein lies another issue for me: Style is style, and if you have your own then you don’t need to brand it because it’s obviously yours. Why treat art like any other mundane product on the marketplace? Fine art is above all this marketing gimmickry, or at least it should be. Am I being too high minded? I don’t think so. And what makes even less sense to me, and strikes me as a cheap tactic, is for artists to use a photo of themselves rather than their work, which is what some San Miguel artists are doing.  

An Art Museum for San Miguel

San Miguel needs a serious art museum in order to enhance its standing in the international art world. How can the global art community look at this city with any respect without one? Until we have a credible art museum we will remain merely a gathering place for bohemian artists. Exciting enough, I admit, and I don’t see any problem with continuing just as we are. However, if the intensified emphasis on tourism by the current mayor’s administration is a reliable indication of the direction in which this city wishes to go, then we will always have gaping hole in our cultural life. The recently opened Europa House on Calle San Francisco, while wonderful in itself, is no substutute for a museum. No urban center that is serious about becoming a cultural destination can afford to be lacking in a city-supported museum of the visual arts.

Dead Art for the Day of the Dead

Art works in honor of Dia de Los Muertos should emphaaize the spiritual over the commercial. Much of the art work I’m seeing around town is much more commercial than it should be. It is dead art. Caterinas, painted skulls, and skeletons abound. Is this respectful to the sacred tradition of the holiday? Families get together to make flowers and use them to adorn altars, they gather at home or at el cementerio to remember their departed loved ones, they DO NOT dance around with someone dressed up as a Catrina, and to multiply these Catrina figures (a skeleton dolled up as a tawdry female, for those who don’t know) does a terrible disservice to the spiritual beliefs of the occasion. You might even go as far as to call it sacrilegious. As art in honor of the day, it is all rather tasteless.

Other subjects related to the holiday are more imaginative and meaningful. Take, for example, my painting “Making Flowers for the Day of the Dead” (see below). I painted this while I was still living in Zacatecas, a city, I am happy to say, that has eschewed or at least avoided the commercialism of San Miguel in this regard. The image is of three women, an old woman and her grandaughters, making flowers to be used on an altar. The old woman looks directly at the viewer because she is prepared for and willing to face Death, who is not in the picture but should be understood to be standing before the group. The two younger women look askance, over their shoulders because they sense the presence of Death but are not ready or willing to face him – it is not their time.

            “Making Flowers for the Day of the Dead”

 

 

Catrinas, Catrinas Everywhere

Catrinas, Catrinas everywhere. It’s that time of the year again, folks. The Catrina image is another one (see my piece on Frida Khalo) I’ve grown tired of seeing around the city. Must we have another, larger Day of the Dead Festival featuring oversized Catrinas? We are going to be treated to a parade of Catrinas! Wow! Now we will have skulls and skeletons and Catrinas on murals in the Guadalpe neighborhood. Oh boy! How imaginative! Pretty soon we’ll have them popping up all over the damn place. Help! there’s a Catrina in my backyard! Waiter, there’s a Catrina in my soup! I was riding on the bus and who should get on? A contigent of Catrinas! I was driving along Ancha San Antonio when the traffic came to an abrupt halt and we had to wait until all the Catrinas crossed, a whole herd of them! I understand the city is going to put up new signs reading CATRINA CROSSING.  Isn’t that just delightful?