The Mexican Museum to Showcase MAESTROS: 20TH CENTURY MEXICAN MASTERS, 3/13-6/28

San Francisco, CA -- The Mexican Museum, the premier West Coast museum of Mexican, Mexican-American, Chicano, Latin American and Latino art, culture and heritage, announces a new spring 2015 exhibition entitled "Maestros: 20th Century Mexican Masters," which will feature a dramatic selection of artworks from the Museum's permanent collections. The special exhibition will include the works of 30 internationally-renowned artists, beginning with the three most influential Mexican artists: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Jose Clemente Orozco.

Maestros: 20th Century Mexican Masters will run from March 13 to June 28, 2015. The Mexican Museum is located at Fort Mason Center, Building D in San Francisco, and is open to visitors Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. A special members' preview reception will take place on Thursday, March 12th at The Mexican Museum from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

"This exhibition presents a highly-accomplished and influential group of Mexican artists from post-revolutionary Mexico through the 20th century," said David de la Torre, Museum Director and exhibition organizer. "The artists included in Maestros: 20th Century Mexican Masters have achieved international acclaim for the quality of their work and for their enormous contributions to Mexican art history."

About Maestros: 20th Century Mexican Masters:

Post-revolutionary Mexico saw the emergence of some of the greatest artists of the 20th century - individuals that influenced a whole generation of artists at home and abroad. The exhibition includes over 40 paintings, works on paper, and sculpture, as well as rare books and ephemera representing 30 internationally-known artists.

Beginning with Los Tres Grandes, the exhibition pays tribute to the three most influential Mexican artists of the 20th century: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Jose Clemente Orozco. Creating the muralist traditions that would deeply influence public art for decades to come, Los Tres Grandes provided the basic styles and techniques which inspired their peers and the literati of their time.

Other painters and muralists who were friends of Los Tres Grandes, such as Jean Charlot, Julia Lopez, Carlos Merida and Roberto Montenegro, made their own contributions, individually and collectively, to the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Also showcased in Maestros: 20th Century Mexican Masters, the works of these artists are illustrated through wonderful paintings, works on paper, and rare books from The Mexican Museum's extensive holdings.

Another group of Mexican artists featured in the exhibition emerged during the 20th century and embraced classic, figurative, and representational forms of expression. Federico Cantú, Rafael Coronel, and Francisco Corzas steadily evolved as highly-accomplished painters and printmakers. Others, such as Jose Luis Cuevas and Francisco Zuniga, became known internationally for their paintings and monumental sculptures. Talented artists such as Edmundo Aquino and Francisco Toledo chose the graphic arts as a primary means of expression.

In the early 1920's, surrealism became an international worldwide cultural movement, with artists creating strange, unnerving, and detailed illogical scenes originating from the unconscious. The surrealist artworks on display will include pieces by such icons of the movement as Leonora Carrington, Alice Rahon, Alfredo Castañeda, Alejandro Colunga, Pedro Freideberg, and Rufino Tamayo.

Post-World War II abstraction will be represented by the works of Gunther Gerzo, Matthias Goeritz, Leonardo Nierman, Vicente Rojo, and Leticia Tarrago. Self-taught figural artists Candelario Medrano Lopez and Chucho Reyes were inspired by the popular arts, and their works demonstrate their abstract techniques through deeply-expressive ceramic creations and fragile works on paper.

"The extraordinary artworks on view in Maestros: 20th Century Mexican Masters have been donated to The Mexican Museum over its rich, 40-year history," said de la Torre. "We extend our deepest appreciation for these gifts as our unique modern and contemporary art collections continue to grow and expand."

Artists in the Exhibition:

• Edmundo Aquino
• Dr. Atl
• Leonora Carrington
• Federico Cantú
• Alfredo Castañeda
• Jean Charlot
• Alejandro Colunga
• Francisco Corzas
• Rafael Coronel
• Jose Luis Cuevas
• Arturo Estrada
• Pedro Freideberg
• Gunther Gerzo
• Matthias Goeritz
• Julia Lopez
• Carlos Merida
• Roberto Montenegro
• Leonardo Nierman
• Jose Clemente Orozco
• Fanny Rabel
• Alice Rahon
• Chucho Reyes
• Diego Rivera
• Rufino Tamayo
• Vicente Rojo
• David Alfaro Siqueiros
• Rufino Tamayo
• Francisco Toledo
• Leticia Tarrago
• Francisco Zuñiga

About The Mexican Museum:

Founded by the well-known San Francisco artist Peter Rodriguez in 1975 in the heart of the Mission District, The Mexican Museum is located at Fort Mason Center. The Museum is realization of Rodriguez's vision to present the aesthetic expression of the Mexican and Mexican-American people. Today, the Museum's vision has expanded to include the full scope of the Mexican, Chicano and Latino experience - including the arts, history and heritage of their respective cultures.

In 2012, The Mexican Museum became an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the nation's largest museum network. The Museum currently has a permanent collection of more than 16,500 objects reflecting Pre-Hispanic, Colonial, Popular, Modern and Contemporary Mexican, Mexican-American, Latin American, Latino, and Chicano art.

The Mexican Museum is open Wednesday - Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., and located at Fort Mason Center, Building D, Marina Boulevard and Buchanan Street, in San Francisco. FREE Admission. The Museum offers a wide variety of programs, including Family Sundays, exhibitions, special events, lectures, and public programming throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit www.mexicanmuseum.org or call (415) 202-9700.

The Mexican Museum is currently preparing for the construction of its permanent home, which is expected to open in 2018. People are encouraged to support The Mexican Museum by becoming new members, or by joining the Builder's Society online or by mailing a check to: The Mexican Museum, Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Boulevard, Building D, San Francisco, CA 94123.For more information on the Builder's Society, please contact Adriana Lopez at (415) 684-9803.