Carlos Mérida
CARLOS MERIDA
(Guatemalan, 1891 – 1984)
La Rosa de los Vientos, 1965
Oil and sand on canvas
Image size: 31 1/2 by 25 5/8 in. (80.01 by 65.08 cm)
Signed and dated ‘Carlos Mérida 1965’ (lower center)
Inscribed along the back stretcher bar:
‘La Rosa de Los Vientos-Carlos Mérida - 1965’
Provenance:
Acquired from the artist;
Hence by descent to Estella and Joaquin Shapiro;
Christie's Sale # 2747, Latin American Art, Nov. 20,2013, lot 134.
Carlos Mérida was one of the first artists to apply Latin American themes to a modernist European painting style. Mérida is associated with the Mexican muralist movement, but the abstract style of his best-known studio paintings and murals set him apart from his peers. While in Paris, he was exposed to the European modernists, including Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Juan Miró, and Paul Klee, as well as Diego Rivera, another Latin American painter studying in Europe at the time. Upon moving to Mexico, Mérida became fascinated with the region’s traditional crafts, combining elements of Mayan arts and culture with his modernist and Cubist style.