Mary Martín (1927 – October 12, 1982) was a Spanish-Mexican artist whose work has been recognized with membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.

Life

Martín was born María Luisa Martín in Salamanca, Spain to father Vicente Martín, who drew railways and railway lines. At the end of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

, her family fled to Madrid, then north to France, but there they were caught and the father sent to a concentration camp by the Germans. The father escaped to help his family flee Europe and become refugees in Mexico. Later in this same country, she married architect Eduardo Vázquez Jiménez. She was a communist but not active in the party because of what she considered the machismo of the male members. In this new country, Mary studied at the Academia Hispano Mexicana, but when she was a teenager she left school to pursue a career in art. Her father was her first teacher, and later studied with painter and architect Roberto Fernández Balbuena. From 1944 to 1949, she returned to school to study at the

Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" La Esmeralda or Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado (ENPEG) (English: National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking) is a Mexican art school founded in 1927 and located in Mexico City. History The history of the ENPEG start ...

, where she studied under teachers such as

Alfredo Zalce Alfredo Zalce Torres (12 January 1908 – 19 January 2003) was a Mexican artist and contemporary of Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and other better-known muralists. He worked principally as a painter, sculptor, and engraver, also taught, and ...

Carlos Orozco Romero Carlos Orozco Romero (September 3, 1896 – March 29, 1984) was a Mexican cartoonist and painter who co-founded several cultural institutions in Mexico, including the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda". His work was re ...

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and

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 ...

. She died of cancer at age 55.

Career

Martín's first exhibition came in 1949 at the Cristal Bookstore just off the Alameda Central in Mexico City, in which she demonstrated her works in painting and drawing. She then became a member of the

Taller de Gráfica Popular The ''Taller de Gráfica Popular'' (Spanish: "People's Graphic Workshop") is an artist's print collective founded in Mexico in 1937 by artists Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O'Higgins, and Luis Arenal. The collective was primarily concerned with using ar ...

focusing on printmaking with political and social themes such as images of workers, indigenous people, prisoners and works supporting the Cuban Revolution. In the early 1950s, she met Diego Rivera, who invited her to collaborate on mural projects at the Teatro de Insurgentes and The Olympic Stadium of the Ciudad Universitaria. From 1955 to 1960, she exhibited her work in Europe (

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, Paris,

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, Stavropol, Moscow and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

), Beijing and San Antonio, Texas. The student uprising in Mexico prompted her to become a drawing teacher, working with the architecture faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico from then until her death in 1982. She was inducted into the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and served on its board.

Artistry

Although she always kept her Spanish accent, her artwork was definitively Mexican. She was attracted to the Mexican Muralism movement. Diego Rivera described Martín as "an artist of great validity and seriousness...solid, honest, and full of emotion." One of her themes was the plight of women in Mexico, with the discovery of the stone disk of the goddess Coyolxauhqui inspiring for her a metaphor, and to whom she dedicated a series of works. Much of her work was drawing, favoring solid heavy black lines, along with

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

tones for dramatic effect.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Mary Mexican artists Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" alumni 1927 births 1982 deaths People from Salamanca Spanish emigrants to Mexico