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Hello there! Bien venidos! Welcome to Mexic-Arte Museum, the official Mexican and Mexican American
fine arts museum of Texas. We're located on the corner of Fifth and Congress in the heart
of downtown Austin, Texas. So this next section of the collection "From Revolution to Renaissance"
is entitled "Reinventing the Nation." So this is where the artists of Mexico at that time,
started focusing on their indigenous roots. And so when we say indigenous, we're talking
about the natives, the Indians, and there's many different indigenous groups within Mexico,
and they have very rich cultural traditions. So the artists, they start focusing on that,
and they start showcasing that within the art. At this time as well, they're also developing
their own styles. So you see, for instance, Carlos Merida here. He paints very flatly
and he's very much drawn to patterns. You see lots of patterns within the wipilas of
the indigenous women. And we know they're indigenous because they have the darker skin,
they have the traditional trenzas, or braids, but he paints very flatly. On the other hand,
Roberto Montenegro here, he has his own style, which he focuses a little bit more on dimensional
qualities. The cheeks actually look as they go back; they have more three dimensional
feel, but again, these are indigenous people, the traditional braids. We see the pottery
from Oaxaca, which is a state along the southern coast of Mexico, has the most indigenous people
and population within that state. The black pottery they would wear on their heads; they're
water carriers. So, you start seeing some of those rich traditions coming through in
these paintings. The Mask Maker is a great example of how, in Mexico, art is, it's part
of the everyday life. They eat, breathe and sleep art. It comes natural. They're constantly
using their hands, whether they're cutting flowers to sell in the mercado, or they're
preparing these beautiful lush fruits in really aesthetically pleasing ways, or they're making
masks for El Dia de los Muertos, or special traditions. I love how the artist, this is
Jose Chavez Morado, and he focuses on the hands too. They've got these long, elongated
fingers stained with paint. But you can see in the expression of the Mask Maker, he's
very tired; he's been selling these masks all day long. They get up early in the morning;
the hustle and bustle starts in the mercado. So, he's been sitting there for awhile and
it's dark by now, so he's probably ready for something to eat and ready for his cama, his
bed.