Hilary Nestor ’24 in Mexico
Most recently, I had taken an Art History class during the spring semester focusing on the Modern Arts with Dr. Welch. During the semester Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera were often mentioned because of their murals and surrealist works that emphasized Mexican culture. I was fascinated with their artworks and how they connected to their identities and the culture surrounding Mexico. Coincidently, during July, I set off to Mexico to visit my family for the first time and saw the rich culture and the many artworks displayed around each city.
On this trip, I was excited to visit their museum and view their works up close. However, getting tickets at the last minute was tricky! At the time of planning, Mexico was in its rainy season with it being cool in the morning and muggy in the afternoon. But the city always has something to offer, and my uncle took me to a nearby museum instead, El Museo del Estanquillo. Although the works were more music-oriented, the works conveyed the influence music had on Mexico and their artworks, whether it was photography, sculpture, or drawing. I viewed each work in awe thinking how amazing that they were impacted by different genres of music.
As a sculpture major, I was focused on 3-D artworks, most of those that were displayed were miniature figures and puppets. Mexico is known to be a very colorful and vibrant country, so each was decorated colorfully and positioned carefully to display the figures. With the soft music playing in the background, it was as if the works could come to life and start dancing. Much like Kahlo and Diego, each work had a certain story or era of music attached to it that displayed the impact the genre of music had to create the artwork that would later be a representation of Mexico at the time. I was certainly inspired seeing all these works that I saw and even outside the museum. Everywhere you turn there are murals, sculptures, and vendors selling their artworks displaying Mexican culture. As much as I loved being in Mexico, I could not wait to get back home and start creating artworks filled with my own stories to show my own identity.
Posted by Hilary Nestor ’24
