FIVE FOR FRIDAY: ¡FELIZ CINCO DE MAYO TARDíO!

Five for Friday, written by a variety of MoMA staff members, is our attempt to spotlight some of the compelling, charming, and downright curious works in the Museum’s rich collection.

Originally a local commemoration of an outnumbered Mexican army’s 1862 victory over French troops at the Battle of Puebla, Cinco de Mayo has grown to include a major American celebration of Mexican culture and Mexican American heritage. In (belated) celebration of the holiday, here is just a tiny sample of MoMA’s rich collection of work by Mexican artists—and by artists from the U.S. and abroad who have responded to Mexico’s people and natural beauty. (If this piques your interest, be sure to visit MoMA this fall for our Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art exhibition.)

Happy (belated) Cinco de Mayo!

1. Roberto Montenegro. Maya Women. 1926
Montenegro’s painting figured prominently in MoMA’s 1940 exhibition Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art. (Read the original press release in PDF format.)

2. José Clemente Orozco. Zapatistas. 1931
Like many Mexican artists in the 1920s and 1930s, Orozco frequently returned to depictions of Emiliano Zapata’s Liberation Army of the South.

3. Manuel Alvarez Bravo. The Daughter of the Dancers. 1933
Alvarez Bravo was a central figure in the artistic renaissance that followed in the wake of the Mexican Revolution, and images like this make clear that his reputation was well deserved.

4. Henri Cartier-Bresson. Los Remedios, Mexico. 1963
The influential French photographer (and frequent exhibition subject) was a master of capturing the beauty in seemingly mundane moments.

5. Eduardo Del Valle with Mirta Gómez. Oaxaca, Mexico. 1988
This pair of Cuban-born American photographers have been taking pictures of Mexico for years, creating a stunning body of work that spans more than a decade.