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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
Maguey XXI
Pablo López Luz (Mexican, born 1979)
2020
Medium/Technique
Photograph, gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 84 × 107 cm (33 1/16 × 42 1/8 in.)
Framed: 87 × 109.7 × 3.8 cm (34 1/4 × 43 3/16 × 1 1/2 in.)
Framed: 87 × 109.7 × 3.8 cm (34 1/4 × 43 3/16 × 1 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Emi Winterer
Accession Number2022.42
ClassificationsPhotographs
Born in 1979, Pablo López Luz explores Mexican identity through photographs of landscapes and cityscapes, from above and within Mexico City. His works also include residential facades and other architectural details found across the megalopolis, fusing Mexico’s pre-Columbian history with its modern identity through use of visual patterns and pyramids. Deeply influenced by photographer Graciela Iturbide, López Luz brings forth the complexities of contemporary Mexican culture through his organic, geometric, and poetic visual observations.
This work is from a recent series – “Maguey XXI” (2020) -- in which López Luz photographs the symbolic monumental succulent, a source of both nutrients and healing. The sweetening, and intoxicating, agave plant has been the subject of many Mexican artists over time, as seen in work by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Tina Modotti, and Mariana Yampolsky among others. López Luz’s representation of the large resilient maguey points to mexicanidad and evokes the resilience of Mexican identity – this maguey has been cut, marked up, and even bandaged, but still stands strong in the urban landscape.
This work is from a recent series – “Maguey XXI” (2020) -- in which López Luz photographs the symbolic monumental succulent, a source of both nutrients and healing. The sweetening, and intoxicating, agave plant has been the subject of many Mexican artists over time, as seen in work by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Tina Modotti, and Mariana Yampolsky among others. López Luz’s representation of the large resilient maguey points to mexicanidad and evokes the resilience of Mexican identity – this maguey has been cut, marked up, and even bandaged, but still stands strong in the urban landscape.
Provenance2021, Pablo López Luz, Mexico City, to Toluca Fine Art (Paris, France); 2021, Toluca Fine Art sold to MFA. (Accession Date: February 16, 2022)