Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Artist of the day, April 8 2020: Ángela Gurría Davó, a Mexican sculptor (#963)

Ángela Gurría Davó is a Mexican sculptor. In 1974, she became the first female member of the Academia de Artes. She is best known for her monumental sculptures such as Señal, an eighteen-meter tall work created for the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Gurría was born in Mexico City to a very traditional family. Her father was very strict, not even allowing his wife to leave the house in Coyoacán without him. He had one boy and four girls with his wife, a situation he wanted to change with more boys. However, Angela was the last of their children.

As a child, she was attracted to the work done by stonemasons near her home and she wanted to become an artist. However, in 1940s Mexico it was nearly impossible for a woman to become a professional sculptor. She began by teaching herself.

As a young woman, she entered the School of Philosophy and Literature at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México as she had thoughts of becoming a writer. However, she decided to return to art after taking a class in modern art given by Justino Fernández.

Despite prejudices against women at the time, she began her art career. In the early 1960s, she traveled to Europe to study and do research in art, spending time in England, Italy, and France. Later she spent time in Greece and New York.

In 1952, she began to work as an apprentice to sculptor Germán Cueto at Mexico City College, learning from him for six years. Later she worked under Mario Zamora at the foundry of Abraham González and at the workshop of Montiel Blancas. However, it was still difficult for women to be taken seriously as sculptors, so she signed her works with male pseudonyms, Alberto Urría or Angel Urría. This included her bid for her first monumental piece, called La Familia Obrera, which was done in 1965. When the organizers of the bid found out she was a woman, they were surprised and disgusted, as at the time it will still unthinkable for a woman to do such pieces.

Her other professional activities include teaching sculpture at the Universidad Iberoamericana and the Universidad de las Américas in Mexico City. In 1969, she worked in industrial design, focusing on carpets with the backing of the Banco de México, since she was interested in creating sources of work for the country’s weavers.

Although she came to prominence in the latter 20th century, Gurría is not a member of the Generación de la Ruptura, which rebelled against the artistic precepts of its predecessor, Mexican muralism. The main reason for this was that she spent much of the 1960s working on monumental sculptures with more traditional designs. However, she did become one of the pioneers of abstract sculpture in Mexico.

Her later works have not been signed because Gurría says that she is her work.

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Ms. Ángela Gurría Davó

1965, Módulo de vuelo
1966, Celosía de mariposas
1970, Estrella roja
1973, Tzompantli
1976, Libertad de expresión
1980,  Círculo de mariposas
1982, Caracol IV
1983, Caracol III
1983, Caracol II
1992, Eclipse
1993, Calavera 
1993, El vuelo de la mariposa
1993, Flor de cactus
1993, Jarrón con flores
1993, Mural de mariposas
1995, Tortuga
1997, Muerte en Chiapas
2000-01, Dialectica Mariposa Rosa
2001-02, Mariposa Roja
2011, Positive and negative diptych skull
2012, Ofrenda al inframundo
2012, Sirena de frente
2013, La primera mujer
2016, Paloma
2018, Caracol 
2019, Aries
2019, Carmen
Maqueta para Supernova
Montaña
Palomas
Pareja
Signos
Signos
Unknown title

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