El bien y el mal click for enlarged view

Having decided to prepare the fifth issue of Caravan in Mexico, it was difficult to find in the whole country a state that would be as promising as Oaxaca for the illustration of this edition. As I had been living there for two years, I knew we would find a vivid expression of the essence of the Mexican nation, as well as popular creativity, expressing itself in painting, textiles or those fantastic wood figures. This ex-centered southern state, and specifically its capital (Oaxaca), settled at the heart of 7 valleys, has succeeded in developing its own personality, making it the land of the builders of the Mexican nation (Benito Juarez, Porfirio Diaz) as well as that of painters as famous as Rufino Tamayo or, today, Francisco Toledo. So our little team of Latin correspondents of Caravan (Eulalia Flor and Roque Espinosa from Ecuador, Agustí Nicolau Coll of Catalunya and I, Franco-American living at that time in Mexico), after having visited contacts of the Alliance in Mexico City and in the State of Veracruz, step without hesitation in a bus that would take us in six hours from the capital of the Republic to the capital of the South-East.

In its valleys bathed with sun and colors, we met several persons deeply engaged in meaningful artistic practices, be it for the production of paper from natural fibers, or different pictorial techniques. Deceitful encounters with famous painters had made me pre-sensed a more authentic contact with less famous painters, more open to an exchange with our team. The choice was difficult between two artists interested by the Alliance and a collaboration with Caravan. But as it was becoming urgent, several of us voiced for an artist coming from a family artisan tradition, Demetrio García Aguilar. A pictorial tradition underlining expression, the use of strong color contrasts, and the presence of figures evoking the mother, or death, combined to a strong personal creativity, gave to his painting a strength and a personality typically Mexican. His painting often expresses his preoccupation for the evolution of the world and of his town: relation to the environment, social relationships, the weak and the elder being forgotten, and represents in a very Mexican way the duality of things (life/death, day/night) and death itself, with which this people has invented a kind of happy conviviality.

But above all, it is the quality of our dialogue with Demetrio, the reciprocal listening we have been able to develop in a few days, his interest for the adventure of the Alliance for a Responsible and United World, to which he would like to associate himself, that pushed us to give him the responsibility of illustrating this issue.

Pierre Johnson

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About The Artist To Demetrio García Aguilar, life is about clay. The second son of renowned clay artisan Josefina aguilar, he played with clay as an infant. By age 7, figures he created in his mother’s style were already selling to collectors. Now widely acclaimed in his own right, the 31-year old Demetrio feels he discovered his own personal artistic language only within the last six years or so. His current ceramic work could be called flowing narratives. His individual standing figures seem to express stories "embroidered" powerfully in their stances, surface style and context. We see this, most notably, in his depictions of devils, village women, virgins and "la muerte", or death personified. Demetrio’s work enables us to see and feel the complexities, challenges and trevails of daily village life in Mexico. As he works the clay, the artist is transformed into a storyteller. His richly detailed figures entice us with their intricacy, revealing tales historic and timeless, churning with fantasy bordering on the frightening. The creativity unleashed in his hand-built ceramic sculpture glorifies saint and sinner alike. Thematically volleying from virgin to demon, Demetrio, like many Oaxacan artists, astounds us with the unabashed equality he imparts to works sacred and profane. This "duality" is central to Pre-Hispanic culture and continues to permeate mestizo mexican values to this day. If there were no "evil", we would have no need for "good", the concept goes. "Life" is naturally followed by "death" -- and in turn reemerges from it, as all things must be kept in balance. In recent years, Demetrio’s work has taken prizes in a number of notable competitions, including the "Grand Prize of Mexican Folk art Exhibit",selected work, Mexico City, 1996. In 1998, his art was exhibited at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago. Demetrio lives in Ocotlan, the town he was born in, 25 kilometers south of Oaxaca, where his studio is part of the larger García Aguilar family ceramic workshop.

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