MEXICO CITY.- The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Museo Nacional de Arte pay a heartfelt tribute to the Maples Arce Vermeersh family, who in 1985, 1992 and 2015 has donated 120 pieces among oil paintings, watercolor paintings, drawings, gouaches, prints, photographies and furniture.

Manuel Maples Arce, born in Papantla Veracruz on May 1st, 1900, was a well-known poet, man of letters and collector, considered, with the poet German List Arzubide, the head and leader of the stridentist movement; proposal that brings the aesthetic transformation to the field of quotidian life through the creations of writers, poets and artists such as: Salvador Gallardo, Arqueles Vela, Miguel Aguillón Guzmán, and Germán Cueto, among others; whom consolidated one of the most relevant movements for the avant garde of the XX centuries’ first half.

On March 16th the monothematic rooms of the Museo Nacional de Arte´s second floor opened its doors to the public to exhibit more than 80 pieces that allow us to get an insight in the significant personality of the collector. This display is curated by Maria Estela Duarte with the support of Mireya Maples Vermeersh, who donated these pieces to fulfill the wishes of her parents by leaving them to the Mexican people.

Regarding the project, Maria Estela Duarte, says that “indeed, the most relevant piece is the Café de Nadie, by Ramón Alva de la Canal (1882-1985), without a doubt it summarizes the stridentist movement, about this piece it’s important to mention that there was a first version from 1924, made in the city of Jalapa, which was destroyed in 1927 along with other pieces that were located in the offices of the Horizonte magazine.”

The display has been divided in to two cores, the first one, dedicated to an ambience that parts from a photography with furniture designed by Ramón Alva de la Canal, shown to the audience in this occasion for the first time in this precinct; and the second one, which reunites Naturistic landscapes, engravings and watercolors that talk about the peasantry and traditions. The exhibition of oil paintings, engravings, watercolors, photographs, furniture, graphics and literature includes works from artists such as: Ramón Alva de la Canal, Fermín Revueltas, Lola Cueto, Armando García Núñez, Leopoldo Méndez, Tina Modotti, Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Jean Charlot, Edmond Vandercammen, Alejandro Enrique Ugarte, Salvador Martínez Baez, among others.