Carlos Merida

CARLOS MERIDA (Guatemala, 1891 - Mexico City, 1984).
Untitled.
Watercolor, graphite and colored pencils on paper.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 34 x 22 cm; 54 x 42 cm (frame).

Mérida's artistic career began when he was still a teenager. After returning with his family to Guatemala City, he made contact with several artists and intellectuals. At the age of nineteen, he approached Catalan artist and writer Jaime Sabartés, who helped Mérida organize his first solo exhibition at the offices of the newspaper El Economista in Guatemala City in 1910. As there were few opportunities for artists in Guatemala, in 1910, Mérida traveled to Paris with a friend named Carlos Valenti on a German freighter. From then until 1914, he lived and worked in Paris and traveled throughout much of Europe. This brought him into contact with European avant-garde artists such as Van Dagen, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian, as well as Latin American artists studying in Europe such as Diego Rivera, Jorge Enciso, Ángel Zárraga and Dr. Atl. He exhibited his work in venues such as the Salon Indépendant and the Giroux Gallery in Paris. For unknown reasons, his traveling companion committed suicide in his studio, which deeply and temporarily affected Mérida's interest in art. Roberto Montenegro helped him to overcome it. In 1914, Mérida returned to Guatemala, becoming fascinated with folklore. His second exhibition in Guatemala was at the Rosenthal Building in 1915, an exhibition that marked the beginning of modern painting in Guatemala . His time with Mexican artists in Europe prompted him to go to Mexico in 1919, when the struggle of the Mexican Revolution was over but there was still disorder. He arrived in the country a year before Diego Rivera returned from Europe, making contact with the muralists of the area. Mérida was noted for his easel work and his mural painting. His first exhibition in Mexico was in 1920 at the National School of Fine Arts. That same year he exhibited in the United States at the Hispanic Society of New York. He participated in a group show called Exposición de Artistas Independientes in New York in 1922 and exhibited individually at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Guatemala and the Valentin Dudesing Gallery in New York in 1926. In the 1930s and 1940s, the reputation of Mexican painting was growing; however, Merida still needed to work to sell his paintings. One reason for this was that his work differed from that of the Mexican muralists and was often not well received by critics. Mérida had forty-five exhibitions in the United States and eighteen in Mexico from 1928 to 1948. These included an exhibition with Rufino Tamayo at the Art Center in New York (1930), the John Becker and Valentine Galleries in New York (1930), the Mexican Writers Club and Posada Gallery in Mexico City (1931), the Stedhal Gallery and Stanley Rose Gallery in Los Angeles, the East West Gallery in San Francisco, the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Georgette Passedoit and Cuchnitz Galleries in New York (1939-1940) as well as the 1940 International Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City. He worked intensively in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s producing designs, graphic works, scenographic sketches for dance and tapestries, playing with geometric variations. Other venues for his exhibitions included Harvard University, the Berkeley Art Museum, etc.