INSTITUTE FOR DOCTORAL STUDIES
IN THE VISUAL ARTS
Three IDSVA cohorts participated in an incredible week-long residency in Mexico City this past January. During the residency, students presented papers from their fall coursework and visited cultural sites around the city. A special lecture from Margarita de Orellana and Alberto Ruy Sánchez was a highlight of the week. They spoke about their life project, the publishing house Artes de México, which is dedicated to the recuperation and preservation of Mexico's indigenous art and culture and the ongoing development of its various customs and practices.
Pre-Columbian indigenous cultures come alive in contemporary art, architecture, customs, and traditions in Mexico City. These still powerful aesthetic impulses inform our approach to the Mexican Revolution, the Muralist Movement (Orozco, Siqueiros, Rivera), Kahlo’s painting, Trotsky’s anti-Stalinist theories of art, and the contemporary after-effects of Spanish Colonization. Students visited cultural sites such as Artes de Mexico, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Museo Tamayo, Museo de Arte Moderno, Templo Mayor, El Colegio de San Ildefonso, Museo Anahuacalli, Museo Casa de León Trotsky, Museo Frida Kahlo, contemporary galleries, Museo Kaluz, and the pyramids of ancient Teotihuacán.
The commencement ceremony was held at the Museo Nacional de Arte on the last day of the residency. Six IDSVA students were awarded the PhD degree, along with three Honorary PhD recipients: Nephi Craig, Margarita de Orellana, and Alberto Ruy Sánchez. A special tour of the exhibition "Bajo La Misma Falda" with artist Magali Lara and poet Carmen Boullosa followed the event.
