María Izquierdo (1902–1955) had a productive and fruitful career as an artist – disrupting the fine art scene in the late 1920s and quickly receiving recognition from critics, writers, and artists like Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo. In 1930, Izquierdo became the first Mexican painter with a solo exhibition in New York; furthermore, her work was included in exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art between 1931 and 1940. Poets such as Antonin Artaud and Pablo Neruda praised her work, allowing for her painting to be admired in Paris and Santiago de Chile.

Izquierdo’s approach to art was far removed from political dogmatism, enriched by an open dialogue with avant-garde movements, which she praised for their openness and imagination, but always adapted them to her own language. She studied and absorbed a wide range of styled, most notably surrealism, metaphysical painting, the “pintura popular” of Mexico, and the work of Henri Rousseau. Her painting was spontaneous and intuitive, with extraordinary handling of color to create textures and atmospheres, between poetic and dreamlike. Izquierdo had great admiration for the great masters of painting; as illustrated by her handling of the tempestuous sky in the present work of 1943, which alludes to El Greco and the mannerism movement at large. The theme of Madonna and Child as an allegory to Spring (the title of the present work), evokes Botticelli and the Roman-inspired imagery of the Italian Renaissance.

Despite the several opportunities to display her work in Mexico and abroad, Izquierdo still suffered the censorship and obstruction as a female artist. This was mostly inflicted by the Mexican muralists, who prevented Izquierdo from painting murals herself and ostracized her from certain communities. Nevertheless, her art prevailed. Today, her work is distinguished and revered within Mexican art history – with paintings housed in important collections such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Albright Knox Gallery, and the Dallas Art Museum.

Professor Luis Martín Lozano
October 2022