Contemporary Mexican Art

This is a catalog of the exhibition presented in the National Palace Gallery in Mexico City from june to october 2016.
In 1957, Mexico became the first nation where visual artists were allowed to meet their income tax obligations with works of art. The program, known as Pago en Especie (Payment in Kind), is administered by Mexico’s Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. Over the last six decades, it has led to the creation of one of the nation’s largest collections of modern and contemporary art, now distributed among museums and cultural institutions across the country.

“Art for the Nation” features over 200 works by 104 artists, dating from 1935 to 2015, but they are not organized chronologically. Instead, the works have been arranged according to eight loosely-defined thematic groups: from images of the past to ideas about the cosmos. The themes highlight visual relationships based on form, materials, and content: they connect an extraordinarily diverse array of works across time and space, in both expected and surprising ways.

This exhibition represents the most recent and systematic revision of the Pago en Especie program since its inception. Given the size and scope of the collection, and the vast number of artists who have participated over the years, the selection process was particularly difficult. “Art for the Nation” is inclusive without being comprehensive. We hope the dynamic installation will offer visitors from Mexico as well as abroad renewed opportunities to appreciate this invaluable collection.

James Oles
Guest Curator

Texto de sala elaborado por Carmen Cebreros Urzaiz, para la exhibición: "Evitando que algunos hallazgos se disipen..." del artista visual Ernesto Morales, con la cual hace una revisión de 20 años de su producción. Galería La Libertad, Querétaro, Qro. Marzo 22-Abril 22, 2018. Exposición apoyada por el programa SNC del FONCA.