1951.101 David Alfaro Siqueiros, Portrait of Moisés Sáenz, 1931

In this portrait, the artist emphasized cubes, cones, spheres, and cylinders. Though most famous as one of Los Tres Grandes (The Three Great Ones) of the Mexican mural movement of the 1920s and 30s, David Alfaro Siquieros also responded to European cubism, as this work demonstrates. This international influence overlaps with his interest in Mexico’s pre-Conquest cultures, evident in this imposing figure rendered in a heavy, block-like, idealized way reminiscent of the ancient Olmec heads from Veracruz.

Erin Piñon, Tower Gallery: Latin American Art, Label text, 2017.

Siqueiros_David Alfaro: ULAN: 500008908

Mexico (nation): TGN: 7005560

Cuernavaca (inhabited place / Morelos / Mexico): AAT: 7007109

Ciudad Camargo (inhabited place / Chihuahua / Mexico): AAT: 1136276

lithographs (planographic prints): AAT: 300041379

lithography: AAT: 300053271

prints (visual works): AAT: 300041273

works on paper: AAT: 300189621

figures (representations): AAT: 300189808

human figures: AAT: 300404114

male: AAT: 300189559

men (male humans): AAT: 300025928

heads (representations): AAT: 300262520

faces (animal or human components): AAT: 300251798

portrait: AAT: 300015637

hairstyles: AAT: 300262903

geometric motifs: AAT: 300009764

cubes (geometric figures): AAT: 300133032

cones (geometric figures): AAT: 300055628

spheres (geometric figures): AAT: 300055639

Cubist: AAT: 300021495

modernist (European style): AAT: 300021474

Olmec: AAT: 300017051

Pre-Columbian (American): AAT: 300016619

Moisés Sáenz Heron (Moisés Sáenz / 1888-1941 / Mexican education reformer): DMA

Mexican Muralist (movement): AAT: 300107850

muralist (painter): AAT: 300025153

murals: AAT: 300182732

Ideal (aesthetic concept): AAT: 300069306

Veracruz (state/Mexico): TGN: 7005599

Until 1951: Galleria de Arte Mexicana, Mexico City [Ines Amor, dealer] [1], [2], [3]

From 1951: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Art Association Purchase, purchased from the above [1], [2], [3], [4]

[1] The main source for this provenance was existing information in TMS (in Dallas Museum of Art Digital Collections Records Object Files). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.  

[2] The main source for this provenance is letter from Ines Amor, Galleria de Arte Mexicana, Mexico City, to Jerry Bywaters, Director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (dated September 04, 1951, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[3] The main source for this provenance is letter (inventory list) from Ines Amor, Galleria de Arte Mexicana, Mexico City (dated September 04, 1951, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File, Confidential). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[4] The Dallas Art Association is the predecessor to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name was abandoned in 1970. Works from this collection were transferred to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

Apply to objects where number equals 1951.101