NEW YORK, NY.- El Museo del Barrio presents Under The Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa, Art and Film. The exhibition – presented for the first time in a museum in New York – on view March 4, 2015 through June 27, 2015, celebrates the successes and legacy of Gabriel Figueroa (1907-1997), a prolific Mexican cinematographer who worked both in Mexico and Hollywood. Figueroa built an enduring image of Mexico though his iconic visual style and is considered one of the more important cinematographers of the 20th century.

Figueroa collaborated with a vibrant community of international visual artists, including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and Manuel Álvarez Bravo—as well leading directors such as Emilio Fernández, John Ford, Luis Buñuel, and John Huston. Deemed “the fourth muralist” by Diego Rivera, Figueroa forged a vision of Mexican identity and culture that resonated powerfully with Mexican and international audiences.

“Under the Mexican Sky will radically transform El Museo, gutting its galleries to create an expressionistic hall of mirrors in black-and-white cinematic projections. It will be the first showing in our new programmatic directions to include also design, fashion, and architecture, among other arts,” said Jorge Daniel Veneciano, El Museo’s Executive Director. “We are proud to present Figueroa’s work and celebrate Mexican art and culture with our visitors, and we are grateful to the Televisa Foundation and CONACULTA for its critical support.”

The exhibition features film clips, stills, and paintings by eminent artists of the mid20th century in Mexico. Televisa Foundation collection, paintings and drawings from 6 Mexican museums, private collections, as well as Figueroa’s own archive have also provided photographs, prints, posters and documents. Also shown is film, video and photographic work by other artists and filmmakers from the period such as Buñuel, Sergei Eisenstein, Edward Weston, and Tina Modotti, who draw from the vast inventory of distinctly Mexican imagery associated with Figueroa’s cinematography or were influenced by his vision.

“The content of the exhibition comes from a number of sources and archives and fulfills multiple functions. However, when taken as a whole, it represents Gabriel Figueroa’s journey through the vast expanse of the image itself. From still and portrait photography he moves on to develop his own cinematographic style. He then returned again to still images in which his lighting tests were transformed into iconic symbols. These images exist independently of the films they originally referred to; they exemplify a distinctive cinematographic eloquence—the already famous Figueroa style” said Claudia Monterde, Adjunct Curator at Televisa Foundation.

Gabriel Figueroa’s prolific career in cinema spanned more than fifty years, during which time he worked as a studio portrait photographer, photojournalist, still photographer, lighting artist, camera operator, and cinematographer. His body of work exhibits his technical skill, careful handling of composition and lighting, and affinity for the aesthetics of visual artists. Distinguished directors such as John Ford, Luis Buñuel, and John Huston sought Figueroa to work with them, and many of his films were recognized at premier international film festivals.

In total, Figueroa’s filmography consists of more than 200 films, including María Candelaria (1943), which won a prize for cinematography at the Cannes Film Festival; Macario (1960), the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film in a Foreign Language; The Night of the Iguana (1964), which garnered an Academy Award nomination for best cinematography; Two Mules for Sister Sara (1969); Kelly’s Heroes (1969); and Under the Volcano (1983). Gabriel Figueroa’s achievements were recognized by colleagues in both Mexico and the United States: he was nominated to be an active member of The Academy in 1968; became president of the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de México in 1972; and received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers in 1995. Figueroa died in Mexico City in 1997 at the age of 90.