Payaso [Jester]

Rafael Coronel came from an artistic family: his grandfather decorated churches, his brother was the well-known abstract painter Pedro Coronel, and his father-in-law was Diego Rivera, in whose studio he worked for many years. During the late 1950s and 1960s, Coronel participated in the dynamic art scene in Mexico City, and like many of his young colleagues he moved away from the epic or revolutionary subject matter characteristic of muralist painting. Instead, Coronel favored elderly or marginal characters, who became, over the years, increasingly isolated and self-absorbed. Here the artist presents a clown or a jester, a recurring theme in his early work, which he painted in a personal style that blended rich color, thick brushstrokes, and dramatic lighting. While shown alone, this performer seems engaged with his surroundings, betraying a sense of anxiety at the implied spectacle developing near him.