MEXICO CITY.- On the occasion of the Bicentennial celebration of the independence of Mexico, the exhibitions Beuys and Beyond - Teaching as Art, and Coordinates, Mario Rangel Faz, opened at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), in association with the Deutsche Bank Collection.

After The Return of the Giants (2003-2004), which involved figurative German painting, and the photography show More than Meets the Eye (2006-2007), Beuys and Beyond - Teaching as Art, curated by Friedhelm Hütte, Global Head of Deutsche Bank Art, Liz Christensen and Christina März (Deutsche Bank AG, CC Art) is the third exhibition of works from the Deutsche Bank Collection touring seven prominent Latin American museums. Afterwards Beuys and Beyond...will be presented at the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango in Bogota, Colombia (May 2011); the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in Sao Paulo, Brazil (September 2011) and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima, Peru (December 2011), among other venues.

For the first time, Deutsche Bank is exhibiting works by Joseph Beuys and his disciples, showing one of the most exciting chapters of post-war Germany and illustrating Beuys' influence as a teacher of young artists. Based on Joseph Beuys' quote "To be a teacher is my greatest work of art", the exhibition celebrates artistic individualism and continuity by presenting the rich diversity of ideas in play in contemporary art practice in Latin America.

This exhibition comprises approximately 50 works on paper by Joseph Beuys and his most exceptional students at the Düsseldorf Akademie: Lothar Baumgarten, Jörg Immendorff, Imi Knoebel, Blinky Palermo, Katharina Sieverding and Norbert Tadeusz.

Beuys and beyond... is accompanied by a catalogue published in Spanish with more than 100 illustrations and contributions by Friedhelm Hütte, Petra Richter, Christian Viveros-Fauné and Jorge Reynoso Pohlenz.

Interestingly, in every country where Beuys and beyond... is shown, there is a parallel exhibition by another exceptional artist-teacher and his artist-disciples, whom are selected by the host museum's curatorial team.

For this purpose, the MUAC selected Coordinates, Mario Rangel Faz, curated by Vicente Rojo Cama and Mariana Elizondo. Mario Rangel Faz (Mexico City 1956-2009) belonged to a generation that diversified its strategies in response to the limited alternatives afforded by the Mexican establishment in the decade of the seventies and turned to teamwork as a means to learn about life and art.

Thus, he was a founding member of two collective initiatives: Grupo Suma (active from 1976 to 1982), along with Ricardo Rocha Rocha (†), José Barbosa, Paloma Díaz, René Freire, Oliverio Hinojosa (†), Armandina Lozano, Gabriel Macotela, Ernesto Molina, César Núñez, Guadalupe Sobrazo, Santiago Rebolledo and Alma Valtierra; and the group Atte. La Dirección (active between 1982 and 1989), consisting of Dominique Liquois, Carlos Somonte, Eloy Tarcisio, Vicente Rojo Cama and María Guerra (†).

The exhibition-tribute to Mario Rangel Faz-painter and splendid engraver, whose proficiency and expertise in the printing processes make him one of the most important engravers of his generation-brings together a set of significant pieces from his skilful body of work. Likewise, it explores Rangel Faz' intense experience as founding member of Grupo Suma and the Atte. La Dirección group, which were concerned with similar effective concepts that were projected in public arenas, thus integrating experimentation with and creation of models for artistic perception and education of audiences that were not necessarily associated with art.

Mario Rangel Faz was an eminent teacher at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas of the UNAM and at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda". At the latter he taught engraving classes for 15 years, taking the experience he garnered on the street-through his work in the abovementioned art groups-into the classroom, where he continued experimenting with printing and graphic reproduction techniques.

Coordinates, Mario Rangel Faz, combines drawing, collage, graphics, painting, installation, audio and video art (a documentary of the actions of Atte. La Dirección).

Beuys and Beyond - Teaching as Art and Coordinates, Mario Rangel Faz, belong to the curatorial series Deeds and Delirium: Medium, Matter and Work, which reconsiders the platonic figure of the artist and poet as the alchemist who shows how matter is the place in art where the maestro converts the work into pure illusion.

Both shows opened on August 21st and will be on view through October 31st 2010.