Every Sunday a group of creators appears in the Garden and through this tianguistic practice breaks the conception of art as something exclusive and alien to "the people" on foot.
In Mexico City "the garden" is a theme that ranges from kindergartens to pantheons, through zoological and botanical gardens and a few more. Of different names and fortunes, but all of a public nature and with the common denominator of being spaces for walking and living together, for meeting and recreation, which –except for infants– are filled on Sundays. They are places where rest is celebrated as a ritual, where time passes in the open air, without a clock, and it is possible to hear children frolicking and swings that creak, and - at the height of pre-modernity - birds that sing, or even some band playing the overture "Poet and Peasant", sponsored by the authority.
I expand on this because I want to emphasize that, despite today the masses prefer to dedicate their Sunday mornings to "going to the plaza"; In this city there are still remnants of a culture in which it makes sense to watch something other than sideboards or “action” movies, in which it is considered legitimate to walk around without pushing a basket on wheels, in which others are something more What a hindrance in traffic A culture in short, in which buying and being are still considered separate things.
Longing for a Gentle Homeland that really, who knows if it ever existed? Can be. What I am sure of is that our heritage is vast and multiple, and that it would be as limited to deny the advantages of the computer as it is to pretend to turn our back on this other part of our reality.
Because, although modern urbanism and ecology not only justify but demand gardens and public spaces, the truth is that the few that we have, rather than having been planned, have survived as a reminder of other times; from times in which the public made sense and it was possible to see the birth, even, of an Art Garden like the one that almost fifty years ago began to flourish behind the Monument to the Mother, in response to the lack of spaces and the difficult conditions imposed by private galleries.
Since then, a group of creators has been present in the Garden of Art. They are as painters as the one who this week receives a tribute or opens an exhibition in such a museum and, just as legitimately as those, they live off their work. There are not a few who teach or have obtained awards and reached the moment of fame that earned them acquisitions, individual exhibition, travel and catalog.
That some grow up and leave, it is true: there are the cases of –no more and no less– Rodolfo Morales, Nierman and Luis Pérez Flores, who was director of the San Carlos Academy; It is also true that there are others who do not pretend the invention of the black thread, but simply an honest way of living, doing what they like and know how to do.
Surely there will be someone who says that the works exhibited there are no more than minor arts, or who disqualifies them for their public nature, and still, there will be those who condemn them for their tourist vocation. For my part, I note that among the large number of techniques, styles and proposals gathered in the Garden of Art there are exponents who have decided to practice a trade, which they masterfully handle, but also those who seek and experiment, those who have entered the National System of Creators and those who have been recruited by gallery owners, nationals and foreigners. Also, I deeply appreciate the ability to meet and chat with, and even haggle, the authors rather than dealing with representatives or agents. And finally, even accepting that not all painters are artists, I wonder if those who are cease to be because I bought them a widow to take the painting to South Dakota.
I say, finally, that in these places one can find practically all the plastic options, from tender little girls among flowers and balloons to nudes, volcanoes or abstract art experiments, and that it will be everyone and their taste that contributes the definitions of art: not the pageantry of the gallery, not the prestige of the author or his godparents, and sometimes, not even the price of the works.
GARDEN OF ART ASSOCIATION
Muníves Pastrana, of the Honor and Justice Commission, and Víctor Uhtoff, the treasurer, inform us that the Jardín del Arte is a civil association that has statutes that establish how the organization is directed and administered. Golden rules of these statutes are those that strictly prohibit the exhibition of copies, as well as works that exploit political and religious themes, which seeks to promote both creativity and respect for the convictions of each one.
WHERE AND WHEN
From them we learn, to begin with, that the Garden of Art starts in Sullivan, and since 1955 it has continued a Sunday tradition that made it necessary to manage new spaces, which is why, before the opening of the Saturday Bazaar in San Ángel, at the beginning of the Sixty, the Plaza de San Jacinto was achieved, where painters have appeared since then. Later, due to the growth of the association, the use of the Plaza de El Carmen was agreed with the authorities on Saturdays and Sundays.
Officially the schedule is, in general, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., but it is recommended to arrive later to ensure that all the exponents are already there. If the weather and sales are favorable, it is possible that at seven o'clock at night it will still find atmosphere, especially in San Jacinto.
There are, on the other hand, similar exhibitions in the cities of Querétaro and Paris, in Montmartre, just that those do not belong to the association.
WHO, HOW MANY
Currently the association is made up of about 700 painters, who exhibit every weekend.
One of the main tasks of the Honor and Justice Commission is to confirm that, indeed, it is the members who personally serve the public. The Selection Commission is the one that organizes the entry of the applicants every three months, depending on the available spaces. On the scheduled date, each applicant comes with five duly framed works, which are exhibited to select, for all to see, the new members of the group.
It must be said that the availability of spaces depends mainly on resignations or abandonments, but also on the death of a member. There are currently about fifty applicants on the waiting list.
Additionally, the association admits, as guests, foreign painters, up to a period of three months.
There is also a Committee on Exhibitions, Press and Propaganda, and Public Relations.
