Carlos Mérida

(Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, 1891 – Mexico City, 1984)

Leyendas Prehispánicas (Pre-Hispanic Legends)

1983

silk-screen on paper (15/75)

80 x 120 cm

Inv. no. CCB048

BBVA Collection Mexico



By the time Carlos Mérida conceived Pre-Hispanic Legends, three decades had elapsed since his earliest portfolios of prints, currently coveted by experts and art lovers alike: Carnaval de México (1940), Trajes mexicanos (1942), Estampas del Popol Vuh (1943), Trajes regionales mexicanos (1945) and Trajes indígenas de Guatemala (1951) which brought his Amerindian phase to a close. From that moment onwards, his work would be governed by a synthesis of serialised patterns, as demonstrated by the rhythmic rigidity of some of his silk-screens and the hinted fluidity of others.

This work demonstrates the construction of a geometric language to which the artists dedicated all his efforts, propagated in large landscaped or vertical friezes. The rigour that guided Mérida in his purist exactingness and the pristine variations on the same theme that punctuate his practice do nothing to erode the poetic power emanating from each one of his works.

The coherence of Mérida’s vision, the analytic system that eschewed all improvisation and abided strictly to precision and restraint, is matched by the sophistication of chromatic harmonies visible in this silk-screen—reds, blacks, blues, ochre, roast coffee in tones and gradations that define his later mature works for which he is better known by the wider public.