Week Four Discussion Post: The Denver Art Museum Presentation Panel

             The Denver Art Museum revealed their exhibition on January 19, 2021 on Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Mexican Modernism. This exhibition was surrounded with the question and topics of; How Mexican Modernism is still relevant today, the layered identities, reclamation and appropriation. In order to discuss these topics, the exhibition held multiple presentations from their creators. The first artist on the panel who presented was Pablo Helguera who’s work focuses on topic ranging from ethnography, pedagogy and memory and the absurd. Helguera is New York based artist who work to portray his messages in sculpture, drawing, and performance. Other forms he displays his work is by lecture, written fiction, and musical performances. 

Pablo Helguera

            The topic of reclamation and appropriation really spoke out to me when Helguera began to discuss his experiences. Helguera’s activist’s art about the Black Lives Matter movement was heavily influenced upon his uncle Leon Helguera. Leon was most known for his poster making of the wars that contained images such as Uncle Sam. When Pablo Helguera wanted to create a piece, he saw that his uncle was promoting silence in the war time. This is significant because his own uncle was spreading the word to be silent and not speak upon the tragedies that occur within soldiers. In response, Pablo took Leon’s most famous piece and switched the meaning in entirety. This artwork went from spreading silence to acknowledging silence is compliance. Pablo did this so he can challenge society to think about the social injustices and racism occurring. This whole process is what reclamation and appropriation is about and I hope this form of redoing art enters k-12 academia to help reverse the impacts of western art. 

    The Denver Art Museum’s panelist rose some important questions and dialogue in which I learned so much from. Pablo Helgura taught me many things within his presentation, and I will take it upon myself to learn more about artist who have the same mission and Pablo. Overall, I really enjoyed hearing every speaker’s presentation and the exhibition.