Blog Post 4 - Denver Art Museum

 Earlier this week, me and the rest of my classmates got the opportunity to view the Denver Art Museum Panel, led by art historian and industrial designer Jorge Rivas. In this panel, we were able to discover the idea of Mexican Modernism. What really caught my attention, though, was the stories of the three artists I learned about; those amazing artists being Damian Ortega, Pablo Helguera, and our lovely professor, Professor Lopez. I got the chance to look into the different lenses of each artist, alongside with their stories, the evolution of their artwork, and some of the barriers they faced as artists and individuals. In the beginning of the panel, we were introduced to artist Pablo Helguera, born in Mexico City, Mexico. During his discussion to us, Helguera expressed some of the challenges that he went through as a hisapnic artist. Moreover, one of the main struggles he faced early on in his career was questioning what kind of art he wanted to represent. Specifically, Helguera was in a speed bump whether his main focus of his art talent was to focus on traditional, old-school-like art, or to test other genres. Fortunately, Helguera decided to try many different styles of art. One example that really fascinated me about Helguera’s work was his contribution to the Black Lives Matter movement, which took place back in June of 2020. Helguera expressed to us that he designed posters, both in black and white, expressing “silence is compliance”. For those who don’t know his story, one may view it as “mainstream media''; however, for us students at least, learning about his story, Helguera’s action to the BLM movement is significant. Moreover, these posters exemplify the substantial steps that Helguera took to get to where he is now. From questioning his motive to now supporting a political movement is something that inspired me from Helguera’s character. While all the artists I learned about in this panel was inspiring, Helguera gives me the motivation and inspiration to make bold decisions in my life as I endeavor to face the real world.