Yola, Rafael Coronel

Exhibition Label:
“Selecciones: Mexican Art from the Collection,” Nov-2005, Kate Meyer
The Spencer Museum is pleased to present four new gifts from Elizabeth Schultz, all created by Mexican artist Rafael Coronel in the 1960s. Coronel’s paintings and drawings are shown here alongside highlights from the museum’s collection of twentieth-century Mexican works on paper. This display invites the viewer to consider Coronel’s connections to works by other Mexican artists. Can affinities be found between Coronel’s imagery and the iconography employed by his contemporaries and predecessors? Or, does Coronel’s modernism stand out, perhaps suggesting global, rather than national, comparisons?
In addition to focusing on private experience, Coronel and the artists known as Los Interioristas drew inspiration from the socially conscious tradition of the Mexican mural movement. Coronel often created generic portraits of lower-class urban figures. We do not know whether or not Yola was an individual that Coronel knew or one of these social types. Her pose - eyes downcast and hands clasped - is ambiguous. Perhaps she is reflecting upon a recent action, or perhaps anticipating one to come. Coronel does not make this clear, but rather leaves the girl’s thoughts open to speculation.