María del Carmen Mondragón Valseca (July 8, 1893 – January 23, 1978), also known as Nahui Olin, was a Mexican painter, poet, and

artist's model An art model poses, often nude, for visual artists as part of the creative process, providing a reference for the human body in a work of art. As an occupation, modeling requires the often strenuous ' physical work' of holding poses for the requ ...

Biography

Carmen Mondragón was the fifth of eight children of General Manuel Mondragón, Secretario de Guerra y Marina in 1913 and inventor of the Mondragón rifle. Her mother was Mercedes Valseca. Carmen Mondragón received a privileged, private education in Mexico. Afterwards, she spent 1897 to 1905 in France, where she learned to speak French fluently. The professional activities of General Mondragón, who specialized in artillery design, led the family to Spain in 1905, where she met cadet

Manuel Rodríguez Lozano Manuel Rodríguez Lozano (December 4, 1896 – March 27, 1971) was a List of Mexican artists, Mexican painter, known for his “melancholy” depiction of Mexico rather than the more dominant political or festive one of the Mexican muralism movem ...

, whom she married on August 6, 1913. The couple had a child in 1914, but the infant died shortly after birth. Rodríguez Lozano stated that Mondragón smothered the child but her family denied it. Although her father, General Mondragón, was exiled to Belgium following the Decena Trágica, Carmen Mondragón moved to Paris with her husband, where they met Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Jean Cocteau. Afterwards they moved to

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

, Spain, where Carmen's brother Manuel ran a photo studio. In San Sebastián, she started painting. In 1921, Carmen and her husband returned to Mexico and separated. Whether they were ever officially divorced is unknown. Carmen Mondragón turned towards the artists' scene of Mexico City; becoming acquainted with José Vasconcelos and Xavier Villaurrutia. Additionally, she was interested in the Teatro Ulises movement. She had multiple sexual affairs. Her beauty is described as mesmerizing and erotic, and she was apparently the first woman in Catholic Mexico to wear a miniskirt. She became model of several notable painters and photographers, among others posing for some of Diego Rivera's

murals A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanish ...

, for Tina Modotti, Antonio Garduño, Roberto Montenegro, Matías Santoyo, Edward Weston, and in 1928 for Ignácio Rosas at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. Especially her nudes became famous. When a former French teacher of her recognized her pictures, he published ''A dix ans sur mon pupitre'' (''From my desk, at 10 years old''), a 1924 book, which describes the 10-year-old pupil Carmen Mondragón within the teacher's sight. Carmen Mondragón had an intense love relationship with Gerald Murillo, also known as Dr Atl, who named her "Nahui Olin", a symbol of Aztec renewal meaning "four movement", the symbol of earthquakes. They lived together in the former La Merced Cloister. At this time she wrote her poems ''Óptica cerebral, poemas dinámicos'' (1922) and ''Calinement je suis dedans'' (1923), finished several

naïve Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may b ...

paintings, and composed. As intensely as the love relationship began, it ended just as quickly in the mid 1920s. Later she denied it completely. After having several further affairs, she stepped out of public life in the 1940s. She gained greater recognition posthumously; following a similar trajectory of fame as that of

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, ...

's. Carmen Mondragón is considered a talented and revolutionary woman who both embraced and shaped the 1920s and 1930s in Mexico through her activism and creativity. She has been likened to Guadalupe Marín,

Antonieta Rivas Mercado María Antonieta Rivas Mercado Castellanos (April 28, 1900 – February 11, 1931) was a Mexican intellectual, writer, feminist, and arts patron. Biography Rivas Mercado was born as the second of four children (Alicia, Antonieta, Mario, and Am ...

, Tina Modotti, Lupe Vélez and María Izquierdo. Unlike Kahlo, her popularity was due more to her enchanting beauty than to her artistic and literary work. She reflectively described her work as

intuitive Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognitio ...

. All her self-portraits show oversized, green eyes, but her eyes seem highlighted also in paintings by other artists. Many of her works are undated.also used: Carmen Mondragón in the Spanish Wikipedia
version from August 19, 2008, 00.17
/ref> Her works were exhibited in the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago in 2007, in an exhibition titled ''A Woman Beyond Time/Nahui Olin: una mujer fuera del tiempo''. In 2019 the Spanish novelist Juan Bonilla published his novel "Totalidad sexual del Cosmos", inspired by the life of Nahui Olin. In 2020, this novel won the National Prize for Literature in Spain.

Literature

* : ''Nahui Olin, la mujer del sol'', , * Pino Cacucci: ''Nahui'', 2005, * Dr. Atl: ''Gentes Profanas En El Convento'', , * Juan Bonilla: ''Totalidad sexual del cosmos'', , * Sandra Frid: ''La mujer que nació tres veces: la novela de Nahui Olin'',

External links

*
A Mexican Artist and Muse Reclaims Her Legacy

Cats of Carmen Mondragon

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mondragon, Carmen 1893 births 1978 deaths 20th-century Mexican painters Mexican women poets Mexican women painters Mexican artists' models Writers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican women artists 20th-century Mexican poets 20th-century Mexican women writers Artists from Mexico City