This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/arts/rina-lazo-dead.html
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Rina Lazo, Muralist Who Worked With Diego Rivera, Dies at 96 | Rina Lazo, Muralist Who Worked With Diego Rivera, Dies at 96 |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| In 1946, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera invited Rina Lazo, one of his assistants, to have lunch at his home with him and his wife, the painter Frida Kahlo. Ms. Lazo was 23 and had been in Mexico for only a few months. She accepted. | In 1946, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera invited Rina Lazo, one of his assistants, to have lunch at his home with him and his wife, the painter Frida Kahlo. Ms. Lazo was 23 and had been in Mexico for only a few months. She accepted. |
| That day, Kahlo served a traditional spicy Mexican meal — so spicy, in fact, that Ms. Lazo, who was from Guatemala, couldn’t enjoy it. | That day, Kahlo served a traditional spicy Mexican meal — so spicy, in fact, that Ms. Lazo, who was from Guatemala, couldn’t enjoy it. |
| “Rina,” she later recalled Rivera saying, “if you do not learn how to eat spicy food, you will not be able to paint well.” | “Rina,” she later recalled Rivera saying, “if you do not learn how to eat spicy food, you will not be able to paint well.” |
| Ms. Lazo didn’t understand; what did food have to do with art? | Ms. Lazo didn’t understand; what did food have to do with art? |
| Still, she saw Rivera as a mentor and took the comment to heart. It would be years before she would grasp what he meant, which she summed up in an essay in 2012 for the newsletter Crónicas, published by the National Autonomous University of Mexico: | Still, she saw Rivera as a mentor and took the comment to heart. It would be years before she would grasp what he meant, which she summed up in an essay in 2012 for the newsletter Crónicas, published by the National Autonomous University of Mexico: |
| “If you do not truly appreciate our food, our customs, our traditions, our culture, you will not be able to reflect in your painting what is most profound about the Mexican people.” | “If you do not truly appreciate our food, our customs, our traditions, our culture, you will not be able to reflect in your painting what is most profound about the Mexican people.” |
| Ms. Lazo lived in Mexico for the rest of her life, assisting Rivera until he died while also finding her own voice as an artist. Mexican muralism taught her the importance of expressing a political and social consciousness, but she softened the militancy that was common in the post-revolutionary era. In allegorical paintings, prints and murals with a subtle yet richly colorful palette, Ms. Lazo celebrated Mesoamerican cultures, especially the Maya, and the spiritual abundance of the natural world. | Ms. Lazo lived in Mexico for the rest of her life, assisting Rivera until he died while also finding her own voice as an artist. Mexican muralism taught her the importance of expressing a political and social consciousness, but she softened the militancy that was common in the post-revolutionary era. In allegorical paintings, prints and murals with a subtle yet richly colorful palette, Ms. Lazo celebrated Mesoamerican cultures, especially the Maya, and the spiritual abundance of the natural world. |
| By the time of Ms. Lazo’s death, on Nov. 1 at 96, she was a renowned artist in both her home and adopted countries. | By the time of Ms. Lazo’s death, on Nov. 1 at 96, she was a renowned artist in both her home and adopted countries. |
| Her death, at her home in Mexico City, was confirmed by her daughter, Rina García Lazo. | Her death, at her home in Mexico City, was confirmed by her daughter, Rina García Lazo. |
| “I was born in Guatemala, but I like to say that I was really born in Central America, because I love Mexico as much as I love Guatemala,” Ms. Lazo said in a 2016 interview with students from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education for Wikimedia. | “I was born in Guatemala, but I like to say that I was really born in Central America, because I love Mexico as much as I love Guatemala,” Ms. Lazo said in a 2016 interview with students from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education for Wikimedia. |
| The Mexican Ministry of Culture, through the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, held a tribute to Ms. Lazo this month at the Diego Rivera Mural Museum. | The Mexican Ministry of Culture, through the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, held a tribute to Ms. Lazo this month at the Diego Rivera Mural Museum. |
| Dina Comisarenco, a researcher at the institute who knew Ms. Lazo and studied her work, wrote in a 2016 paper for the journal Voices of Mexico that she “occupies an outstanding place in Mexican art history.” | Dina Comisarenco, a researcher at the institute who knew Ms. Lazo and studied her work, wrote in a 2016 paper for the journal Voices of Mexico that she “occupies an outstanding place in Mexican art history.” |
| “She is both a political activist and a renowned artist,” Ms. Comisarenco wrote, “who throughout her lifetime produced a significant and socially engaged body of work, on both small and large scales.” | “She is both a political activist and a renowned artist,” Ms. Comisarenco wrote, “who throughout her lifetime produced a significant and socially engaged body of work, on both small and large scales.” |
| Rina Melanie Lazo Wasem was born on Oct. 30, 1923, in Guatemala City to Arturo Lazo Midence, a doctor, and Melanie Wasem, a homemaker, whom Ms. Lazo credited with helping to foster her love of painting and of Maya culture. | |
| “I grew up with this medium — this medium of indigenous art,” she said, recalling a trip with her mother to a grotto amid Mayan ruins when she was a child that left a deep impression on her. | “I grew up with this medium — this medium of indigenous art,” she said, recalling a trip with her mother to a grotto amid Mayan ruins when she was a child that left a deep impression on her. |
| In Guatemala she began studying with the artist Julio Urruela, who suggested that she enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts. There, she recalled, she took on her first political task: making sandwiches at night for fellow students who opposed the dictator Jorge Ubico Castañeda. | In Guatemala she began studying with the artist Julio Urruela, who suggested that she enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts. There, she recalled, she took on her first political task: making sandwiches at night for fellow students who opposed the dictator Jorge Ubico Castañeda. |
| Ms. Lazo soon won a painting contest that provided a scholarship to study in Mexico, where she enrolled at the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving in Mexico City. Within a few months, her talent and discipline had so impressed one of her teachers, Andrés Sánchez Flores, that he brought her to work with Rivera on a big project: “Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central,” a 50-foot-long fresco for the Hotel del Prado depicting a procession of Mexican historical figures. | Ms. Lazo soon won a painting contest that provided a scholarship to study in Mexico, where she enrolled at the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving in Mexico City. Within a few months, her talent and discipline had so impressed one of her teachers, Andrés Sánchez Flores, that he brought her to work with Rivera on a big project: “Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central,” a 50-foot-long fresco for the Hotel del Prado depicting a procession of Mexican historical figures. |
| “I forgot about time,” Ms. Lazo told the newspaper La Jornada in the last interview she gave. “It felt like an eternity, something deeply important in my life — though everyone has said it took three months. During that time I missed classes, and they wanted to discipline me, but I simply told them I was learning fresco.” | “I forgot about time,” Ms. Lazo told the newspaper La Jornada in the last interview she gave. “It felt like an eternity, something deeply important in my life — though everyone has said it took three months. During that time I missed classes, and they wanted to discipline me, but I simply told them I was learning fresco.” |
| She became a crucial assistant to Rivera, who she said called her “my right hand, the best of my helpers.” He also introduced Ms. Lazo to her husband: a fellow artist, Arturo García Bustos, part of a group of Kahlo’s students, referred to as “Los Fridos.” | She became a crucial assistant to Rivera, who she said called her “my right hand, the best of my helpers.” He also introduced Ms. Lazo to her husband: a fellow artist, Arturo García Bustos, part of a group of Kahlo’s students, referred to as “Los Fridos.” |
| The couple married in 1949 and remained together until Mr. García Bustos’s death in 2017. In addition to her daughter, Ms. Lazo is survived by two grandchildren. | The couple married in 1949 and remained together until Mr. García Bustos’s death in 2017. In addition to her daughter, Ms. Lazo is survived by two grandchildren. |
| By the time of her marriage, Ms. Lazo had started to become an independent muralist, a rarity for a woman in Mexico. | By the time of her marriage, Ms. Lazo had started to become an independent muralist, a rarity for a woman in Mexico. |
| She made her first mural, “The Four Elements,” in 1949, and in 1953 she received a commission for another one, this time in Guatemala, which had recently held democratic elections. A coup d’état cut her trip short, but she stayed to finish the work, “Fertile Earth,” a lush scene in which a nude indigenous woman represents the land. | She made her first mural, “The Four Elements,” in 1949, and in 1953 she received a commission for another one, this time in Guatemala, which had recently held democratic elections. A coup d’état cut her trip short, but she stayed to finish the work, “Fertile Earth,” a lush scene in which a nude indigenous woman represents the land. |
| The next year Rivera made “Glorious Victory,” a large portable mural that dramatizes the United States government’s role in the Guatemalan coup. He included Ms. Lazo in the work as a red-shirted revolutionary and let her paint a small section herself. | The next year Rivera made “Glorious Victory,” a large portable mural that dramatizes the United States government’s role in the Guatemalan coup. He included Ms. Lazo in the work as a red-shirted revolutionary and let her paint a small section herself. |
| Her breakthrough came in 1966 when she won a contest to recreate a set of remarkably well-preserved Maya frescoes from around A.D. 790. Ms. Lazo spent three months living in the jungle, studying the works in situ in a temple at the archaeological site Bonampak, before painting her reproductions at the new National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. | |
| She would return to the Maya as a source of inspiration throughout her career, delving into the culture’s ancient creation myths for “Venerable Grandfather Corn,” an original 1995 fresco at the same anthropological museum. Her final mural was “The Underworld of the Mayas,” intended for the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas, which took her about 10 years to complete. | |
| Ms. Lazo worked until the end of her life in her home, which was itself a piece of Mexican history: Casa de la Malinche, built by the 16th-century Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés for his Aztec interpreter and lover. Ms. Lazo and Mr. García Bustos rented the house in the 1960s, then saved up enough money to buy it and spent years restoring and decorating it. The house not only contained their collections; it also represented their worldview — a steadfast pride in, and commitment to, their cultural heritages. | Ms. Lazo worked until the end of her life in her home, which was itself a piece of Mexican history: Casa de la Malinche, built by the 16th-century Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés for his Aztec interpreter and lover. Ms. Lazo and Mr. García Bustos rented the house in the 1960s, then saved up enough money to buy it and spent years restoring and decorating it. The house not only contained their collections; it also represented their worldview — a steadfast pride in, and commitment to, their cultural heritages. |
| Beyond murals, Ms. Lazo made smaller, atmospheric portraits and still life paintings and prints. They have been displayed around the world, including at a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in Guatemala and in the exhibition “Women Artists of Modern Mexico” at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. She won numerous prizes and awards, among them the merit medal for 30 years of teaching at the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature and, in 2004, the Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala’s highest honor. | Beyond murals, Ms. Lazo made smaller, atmospheric portraits and still life paintings and prints. They have been displayed around the world, including at a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in Guatemala and in the exhibition “Women Artists of Modern Mexico” at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. She won numerous prizes and awards, among them the merit medal for 30 years of teaching at the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature and, in 2004, the Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala’s highest honor. |
| “Composition and perfect coloring — that will excite anyone, no? That’s the point of art — to excite,” Ms. Lazo once said. “But if you excite people, and also give them a message, then you’ve created real art.” | “Composition and perfect coloring — that will excite anyone, no? That’s the point of art — to excite,” Ms. Lazo once said. “But if you excite people, and also give them a message, then you’ve created real art.” |