Volcán (Volcano)

The twin volcanoes that overlook the Valley of Mexico, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, constituted the central theme of Dr. Atl’s oeuvre. Graphite stencil drawings of volcanos date back to at least 1921, when a group of them were exhibited at the Fine Arts Museum in Mexico City and lauded by the influential art critic Manuel Toussaint. Dr. Atl, the name adopted by Gerardo Murillo from the Nahuatl word for water, was an early promoter of muralism along with Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco. For Dr. Atl, the fusion of science and anthropology constituted the pillars of a modern Mexican society, an idea reflected in his passion for volcanos as both geological phenomena and mythological events that shaped Aztec history. A cluster of hills and mountains animate the monochromatic landscape of Volcán, as curved shapes generate a sense of depth and vastness. This spatial effect is achieved with a stencil, a cut-out shape that is used to block specific areas on the paper and create patterns of light and shadow, as seen here. Text credit: Produced in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and Patricia Ortega-Miranda