RAFAEL CORONEL | Peregrinos IV

Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City
Christie's, New York, 1 May 1990, Lot 36
Private Collection, California
Acquired from the above by the present owner 

Mexico City, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Retrofutura: Rafael Coronel, September - November 2011, p. 285, illustrated in color 

This work is well stretched on a good stretcher. There is a varnish on the work that is original, which has become slightly uneven. There is a line of what appears to be restoration in the head of the figure in the upper center and in the sky above and to its right, which the most visible retouching being in the red highlight of the figure's cap. The varnish is uneven in the blue here, probably corresponding to this restoration. In the blue sky to the left of this same head in the upper center, there are numerous dull spots, which seem to be due to some material splashing onto the picture affecting the original varnish. (This condition report has been provided courtesy of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.)
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Rafael Coronel emerged in Mexico’s art world at a time of artistic confrontation and rupture from the dominant norms of Mexican Muralism that had prevailed since the Mexican Revolution four decades prior. His unique expressionist figurative style developed during the 1960s explored his subjects’ psychology and innermost emotions. Through the characters in his paintings—inspired by men and women he encountered on Mexico City’s streets— the artist captured the existential angst of a changing society as it entered an industrial modernity. The present work, Peregrinos, Serie IV, the most complex example from Coronel’s oeuvre to appear at auction, underscores his interest in portraiture and his exquisite draftsmanship technique in the depiction of harrowing facial features and bodies set against a spectral Umbrian chiaroscuro tonality reminiscent of Rembrandt, Goya, and baroque art. Executed in Casa Studio San Angel, the former studio of his father-in-law Diego Rivera, the large painting presents a mass of figures, Peregrinos (Pilgrims) in this instance, theatrically rendered in varying stages of their journey. The image and theme of the pilgrim in Coronel’s paintings would dominate this works throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Born in Zacatecas, Mexico into a family of artists—his grandfather decorated interiors of churches, his parents were musicians, and his older brother Pedro was a well-known painter and sculptor of the Generación de la Ruptura—Rafael Coronel wanted to be a soccer player for the Mexican League’s Club América. Upon moving to Mexico City in 1952 to study architecture at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, he also became involved with painting. After earning first place in an art contest at UNAM, he won and a scholarship sponsored by the Instituto Nacional de la Juventud Mexicana which allowed him to attend Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado La Esmeralda to study under Carlos Orozco Romero. Although his art school experience was short-lived, Coronel soon garnered his first solo exhibition in 1956 at the prestigious Galería de Arte Mexicano. His career in the late 1950s and 1960s was marked by high-profile exhibitions such as the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana in 1958, a solo exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City in 1959, among others.