Mansión del agua [Water Mansion]

Both Gunther Gerzso and José Luis Cuevas, in very different ways, challenged the supremacy of the Mexican Muralist movement led by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Álfaro Siqueiros. While Cuevas concentrated on the grotesque, scenes of urban life, and caricature, Gerzso took the opposite path toward abstraction, spirituality, and meditation. In Mansión del agua, a painting from his mature period, the subtle tonal gradations and overlapping forms create a mysterious, otherworldly sensation. While the Muralists represented Mexico’s vast indigenous traditions in a figurative and political manner, Gerzso concentrated on the abstract geometrical structures and figures found in Aztec stonework. The title of this work also alludes to the importance of water for Maya civilizations. While the composition seems to depict a stone construction, there is nothing illustrative or archaeological about the painting. Instead we have a more intuitive evocation of the ancient world. Although Gerzso was somewhat marginalized in Mexico, his search for a contemporary relationship between abstract art and ancient American civilizations strongly echoed the interests of South American artists such as Jorge Eielson and César Paternosto.