From 29 March to 17 August 2025, the Nationwide Gallery in London presents the exhibition “José María Velasco: A View of Mexico”
Supply: Nationwide Gallery · Picture: José María Velasco, ‘Vista de la fábrica de hilados La Carolina (Puebla)’, Nationwide Gallery of Prague © Nationwide Gallery of Prague / picture by Andrea Rývová
The primary monographic exhibition within the UK dedicated to José María Velasco (1840–1912), Mexico’s most celebrated Nineteenth-century painter, will happen on the Nationwide Gallery early subsequent yr (29 March – 17 August 2025).
José María Velasco: A View of Mexico, the primary ever devoted to a Latin American artist on the Nationwide Gallery, coincides with the 2 hundredth anniversary of the institution of diplomatic relations between the UK and Mexico.
José María Velasco is famed for his monumental work of the Valle de México, the world surrounding Mexico Metropolis, the nation’s capital. Painted throughout a long time of great social change, his exact but lyrical works depicted Mexico’s magnificent surroundings and speedy industrialisation.
Whereas Velasco, as considered one of Mexico’s most outstanding artists, confirmed work in Europe and america throughout his lifetime and nonetheless enjoys nice prominence in his residence nation, he’s now not well-known overseas. There isn’t any portray by Velasco in a UK public assortment and the final large-scale exhibition dedicated to him outdoors Mexico was held in 1976 (in San Antonio and Austin, Texas), virtually 50 years in the past.
Velasco obtained many distinctions as Mexico’s consultant at quite a few worldwide exhibitions within the Eighteen Eighties and Nineties. However he was rather more than only a painter of the nation. A real polymath, he was additionally a botanist, naturalist, and geologist with extremely developed pursuits in each Mesoamerican and fashionable historical past. He approached drawing and portray not solely in quest of magnificence but in addition as a part of a quasi-scientific course of, searching for out a number of methods to develop and specific empirical data. His various work discover the connection between completely different cultures, historic and fashionable, Mexico’s mountainous terrain, natural world, and the influence of industrialisation on the panorama. This exhibition will take into account these wide-ranging pursuits and their affect on his artwork.
