Alejandro Santiago: 2500 + 1 Gone!

Alejandro Santiago (1964-2013) was a highly-trained and well-known Mexican artist. He was born and raised in Teococuilco in the state of Oaxaca. You might be thinking, "Why does that matter?"

It's because Santiago returned to his hometown after spending several years in Europe studying art, only to find that half of the population - some 2,500 people - had left. He had come home to a shell of a town. Most of the working age population had emigrated. Those who remained were either old or children who had been left with grandparents. Some of these emigrants would die in the desert, but against their poverty it was a chance they were willing to take.

In a dream, Santiago saw a way to repopulate those 2,500 souls plus his own to the town. With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and 35 workers, he created 2501 clay sculptures. No two figures are alike.

Santiago personally shaped each one in a crude way to represent the native people and the hardships of their lives, both in Mexico and in the United States.

 

Once the 2500+1 figures had been displayed at various galleries, Santiago placed them in Teococuilco to celebrate the "migrants' return." Or as one curator described these sculptures, "...as if to summon the absent ones."  

Zúñiga and the Timeless Earth Mothers

When Francisco Zúñiga (1912-1998) was a boy in his native Costa Rica, he helped his wood-carver father with the religious statues. It was the doorway which led to his formal art education. He studied oil painting, stone sculpturing and mural painting. He won prizes and commissions early in his career.

At age 23, Zúñiga moved to Mexico for the opportunity to be a sculptural assistant and later a professor at La Esmeralda school. In Mexico, he became enchanted by the pre-Hispanic art he encountered at the Museum of Archeology, Mexico City. This led Zúñiga to an understanding of the native people's history and their stoic acceptance of life - especially the women.

"I begin with an emotion, an attitude, a movement caught by chance, a woman wrapped in thought - sitting, walking, or perhaps leading a child. Among the folk who surround me I find a variety of movements -slow, elegant, rhythmic - close to an animalistic vitality or an antique grace."

Zúñiga depicted the native women like the paleolithic Venus of Willendorf. They are abundant in size and stoic in nature with their bodies firmly anchored in the Earth. They are the ancient goddesses shown in the contemplation of life, community, and motherhood.

The images in this blog are a sampling of Zúñiga's paintings, lithographs, marbles, bronzes and sketches of the eternal woman - the work that made him famous.

2,500 plus One - Alejandro Santiago

Alejandro Santiago (1964-) is a highly-trained and well-known Mexican artist. He was born and raised in Teococuilco in the state of Oaxaca. You might be thinking, "Why does that matter?"

It's because Santiago returned to his hometown after spending several years in Europe only to find that half of the population - some 2,500 people - had left. He had come home to a shell of a town. Most of the working age population had emigrated. Those who remained were either old or children who had been left with grandparents. Some of these emigrants would die in the desert, but against their poverty it was a chance they were willing to take.

In a dream, Santiago saw a way to repopulate those 2,500 souls plus his own to the town. With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and 35 workers, he created 2501 clay sculptures. No two figures are alike. Santiago personally shaped each one in a crude way to represent the native people and the hardships of their lives.

The figures are on exhibit now, but eventually Santiago will place them in Teococuilco to celebrate the "migrants' return." Or as one curator described these sculptures, "...as if to summon the absent ones."