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 is a person who 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 ...

Biography

Carmen Mondragón was the fifth of eight children of General

Manuel Mondragón Manuel Mondragón (1859–1922) was a Mexican military officer who played a prominent role in the Mexican Revolution. He graduated from the Mexican Military Academy as an artillery officer in 1880. He designed the world’s first gas-operated se ...

, 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 Mexican painter, known for his “melancholy” depiction of Mexico rather than the more dominant political or festive one of the Mexican muralism movement. This is especially ...

, 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 The Ten Tragic Days () is the name given to the multi-day coup d'état during the Mexican Revolution in Mexico City. It was staged by opponents of Francisco I. Madero, the democratically elected president of Mexico, between 9–19 February 191 ...

, Carmen Mondragón moved to Paris with her husband, where they met

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

, and

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

. Afterwards they moved to

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

, 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 José Vasconcelos Calderón (28 February 1882 – 30 June 1959), called the "cultural " of the Mexican Revolution, was an important Mexicans, Mexican writer, philosopher, and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial pers ...

and

Xavier Villaurrutia Xavier Villaurrutia y González (27 March 1903 – 25 December 1950) was a Mexican poet, playwright, translator, and literary critic whose most famous works are the short theatrical dramas called ''Autos profanos'', compiled in the work ''Poesía ...

. 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 A miniskirt (or mini-skirt, mini skirt, or mini) is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than below the buttocks; and a dress with such a hemline is called a minidress or a miniskirt ...

. She became model of several notable painters and photographers, among others posing for some of

Diego Rivera Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican muralism, mural movement in Mexican art, Mexican and international art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted mural ...

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 Tina Modotti (born Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini, August 16/17, 1896 – January 5, 1942) was an Italian American photographer, model, actor, and revolutionary political activist for the Comintern. She left her native Italy in 1913 a ...

, Antonio Garduño,

Roberto Montenegro Roberto Montenegro Nervo (February 19, 1885, in Guadalajara – October 13, 1968, in Mexico City) was a painter, muralist and illustrator, who was one of the first to be involved in the Mexican muralism movement after the Mexican Revolution. His ...

, Matías Santoyo,

Edward Weston Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was an American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course ...

, 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 Gerardo Murillo Coronado, also known by his signature "Dr. Atl" (October 3, 1875 – August 15, 1964), was a Mexicans, Mexican painter, writer and intellectual. He is most famous for his works inspired by the Mexican landscape, particularly volc ...

, 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 The Convent of Nuestra Señora de La Merced was a Roman Catholic colonial religious complex in present-day Historic center of Mexico City, that was destroyed to give more space to future buildings. The cloister is all that is left of a monaste ...

. 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 ...

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 Culture of Mexico, the country' ...

'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 Patronage, arts patron. Biography Rivas Mercado was born as the second of four children (Alicia, Antonieta, Ma ...

Lupe Vélez María Guadalupe "Lupe" Villalobos Vélez (July 18, 1908 – December 14, 1944) was a Mexican actress, singer, and dancer during the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Vélez began her career as a performer in Mexican vaudeville in the early 1920s ...

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 or needing an explanation. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledg ...

. 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 The National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA) is a museum featuring Mexico, Mexican and Chicano art and culture. It is located in Harrison Park in the Lower West Side, Chicago, Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, Illinois. The museum ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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'',

References

External links

*
A Mexican Artist and Muse Reclaims Her Legacy

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