Carmen Mondragón
Encyclopedia
María del Carmen Mondragón Valseca, also known as "Nahui Olin" (b. Tacubaya
, today Mexico City
, July 8, 1893 – d. Mexico City, January 23, 1978) was a Mexican
artist's model
, painter and poet.
, Secretario de Guerra y Marina in 1913. Her mother was Mercedes Valseca. Carmen Mondragón received a privileged education in Mexico, and afterwards from 1897 to 1905 in France
. The professional activities of General Mondragón, who specialized in artillery design, led the family to Spain
in 1905, where she met cadet Manuel Rodríguez Lozano
, whom she married on August 6, 1913. Although General Mondragón went into exile to Belgium after the occurrences of the Decena Trágica, Carmen Mondragón moved to Paris with her husband, where they met Pablo Picasso
, Henri Matisse
and Jean Cassou
. Afterwards they moved to San Sebastián
, Spain, where Carmen's brother Manuel ran a photo studio. In San Sebastián, both started painting.
In 1921 both returned to Mexico, where they went separate ways. Whether they were ever divorced is unknown. Carmen Mondragón turned towards the artists' scene of Mexico City, got contacts with José Vasconcelos
and Xavier Villaurrutia
, and was interested in the Teatro Ulises
movement. She had multiple sexual affairs. Her beauty is described as mesmerizing and erotic, and she was apparently the first woman in Catholic Mexico who wore a miniskirt
. She became model of several notable painters and photographers, among others posing for some of Diego Rivera
's murals
, for Tina Modotti
, Antonio Garduño, Roberto Montenegro
, Matías Santoyo, Edward Weston
and in 1928 for Ignácio Rosas at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. Especially her nudes became famous. When a former French teacher of her recognized her pictures, he published A dix ans sur mon pupitre (From my desk, at 10 years old), a book of 1924, which describes the 10 year old pupil Carmen Mondragón within his teacher's sight. Carmen Mondragón had an intense love relationship with Gerald Murillo, also known as Dr Atl, who named her "Nahui Olin", a symbol of Aztec renewal
meaning "four movement", the symbol of earthquakes. They lived together in the former La Merced Cloister. At this time she wrote her poems Óptica cerebral, poemas dinámicos (1922) and Calinement je suis dedans (1923), finished several naïve
paintings, and composed. As intensely as the love relationship began, it ended equally quickly in the mid 1920s. Later she denied it completely. After having several further affairs, she stepped out of public life in the 1940s.
As in Frida Kahlo
's life, interest in her life increased after her death. Carmen Mondragón is considered one of the talented and revolutionary women who formed the 1920s and 1930s in Mexico by activism and creativity, like Guadalupe Marín
, Antonieta Rivas Mercado
, Frida Kahlo, Tina Modotti, Lupe Vélez
and María Izquierdo
. Her popularity was due more to her beauty than to her artistic and literary work. She herself described her work as intuitive
. All her self-portraits show oversized, green eyes, but her eyes seem highlighted also in paintings by other artists. Many of her works are undated.
Her works were exhibited in the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago
in 2007, in an exhibition titled A Woman Beyond Time/Nahui Olin: una mujer fuera del tiempo.
Tacubaya
Tacubaya is a section of Mexico City located in the west in the Miguel Hidalgo borough. The area has been inhabited since before the Christian era, with its name coming from Nahuatl meaning “where water is gathered.” From the colonial period to the beginning of the 20th century, Tacubaya was...
, today Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, July 8, 1893 – d. Mexico City, January 23, 1978) was a Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
artist's model
Model (art)
Art models are models who pose for photographers, painters, sculptors, and other artists as part of their work of art. Art models who pose in the nude for life drawing are usually called life models...
, painter and poet.
Biography
Carmen Mondragón was the fifth of eight children of General Manuel MondragónManuel Mondragón
Manuel Mondragón was a Mexican military officer who played a prominent role in the Mexican Revolution. He was born in Ixtlahuaca, State of Mexico in 1859 and died in exile in Spain in 1952. He graduated from the Mexican Military Academy as an artillery officer in 1880. He designed the first...
, Secretario de Guerra y Marina in 1913. Her mother was Mercedes Valseca. Carmen Mondragón received a privileged education in Mexico, and afterwards from 1897 to 1905 in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The professional activities of General Mondragón, who specialized in artillery design, led the family to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 1905, where she met cadet Manuel Rodríguez Lozano
Manuel Rodríguez Lozano
Manuel Rodríguez Lozano was a Mexican painter.- Biography :Rodríguez Lozano was born to Manuel Rodríguez and his wife Sara Lozano. He began a military education at the Heroico Colegio Militar, and started a diplomatic service career...
, whom she married on August 6, 1913. Although General Mondragón went into exile to Belgium after the occurrences of the Decena Trágica, Carmen Mondragón moved to Paris with her husband, where they met Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
and Jean Cassou
Jean Cassou
Jean Cassou was a French writer, art critic, poet and member of the French Resistance during World War II.- Biography :Jean Cassou was born at Deusto, near Bilbao,...
. Afterwards they moved to San Sebastián
San Sebastián
Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...
, Spain, where Carmen's brother Manuel ran a photo studio. In San Sebastián, both started painting.
In 1921 both returned to Mexico, where they went separate ways. Whether they were ever divorced is unknown. Carmen Mondragón turned towards the artists' scene of Mexico City, got contacts with José Vasconcelos
José Vasconcelos
José Vasconcelos Calderón was a Mexican writer, philosopher and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities in the development of modern Mexico. His philosophy of "indigenismo" affected all aspects of Mexican sociocultural, political, and economic...
and Xavier Villaurrutia
Xavier Villaurrutia
Xavier Villaurrutia y González was a Mexican poet and playwright, whose most famous works are the short theatrical dramas, called Autos profanos, compiled in the work Poesía y teatro completos published in 1953....
, and was interested in the Teatro Ulises
Teatro Ulises
The Teatro Ulises was an experimental theater, located in the calle de Mesones 42 of Mexico City, that was established around 1927/1928 by Antonieta Rivas Mercado, daughter of the architect Antonio Rivas Mercado, and further members of the group Los Contemporáneos...
movement. She had multiple sexual affairs. Her beauty is described as mesmerizing and erotic, and she was apparently the first woman in Catholic Mexico who wore a miniskirt
Miniskirt
A miniskirt, sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, is a skirt with a hemline well above the knees – generally no longer than below the buttocks; and a minidress is a dress with a similar meaning...
. She became model of several notable painters and photographers, among others posing for some of Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
's murals
Mexican Muralism
Mexican muralism is a Mexican art movement. The most important period of this movement took place primarily from the 1920s to the 1960s, though it exerted an influence on later generations of Mexican artists...
, for Tina Modotti
Tina Modotti
Tina Modotti was an Italian photographer, model, actress, and revolutionary political activist.- Early life :Modotti was born Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini in Udine, Friuli, Italy...
, Antonio Garduño, Roberto Montenegro
Roberto Montenegro
Roberto Montenegro Nervo was a Mexican painter, illustrator, and stage designer....
, Matías Santoyo, Edward Weston
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of...
and in 1928 for Ignácio Rosas at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. Especially her nudes became famous. When a former French teacher of her recognized her pictures, he published A dix ans sur mon pupitre (From my desk, at 10 years old), a book of 1924, which describes the 10 year old pupil Carmen Mondragón within his teacher's sight. Carmen Mondragón had an intense love relationship with Gerald Murillo, also known as Dr Atl, who named her "Nahui Olin", a symbol of Aztec renewal
Aztec mythology
The aztec civilization recognized a polytheistic mythology, which contained the many deities and supernatural creatures from their religious beliefs. "orlando"- History :...
meaning "four movement", the symbol of earthquakes. They lived together in the former La Merced Cloister. At this time she wrote her poems Óptica cerebral, poemas dinámicos (1922) and Calinement je suis dedans (1923), finished several naïve
Naïve art
Naïve art is a classification of art that is often characterized by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique. While many naïve artists appear, from their works, to have little or no formal art training, this is often not true...
paintings, and composed. As intensely as the love relationship began, it ended equally quickly in the mid 1920s. Later she denied it completely. After having several further affairs, she stepped out of public life in the 1940s.
As in Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
's life, interest in her life increased after her death. Carmen Mondragón is considered one of the talented and revolutionary women who formed the 1920s and 1930s in Mexico by activism and creativity, like Guadalupe Marín
Guadalupe Marín
Guadalupe Marín , born María Guadalupe Marín Preciado, was a model and novelist born in Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, Mexico. At eight years of age Marín moved with her family to Guadalajara. In 1922 she became the second wife of muralist Diego Rivera. Marín was the mother of Rivera's two youngest...
, Antonieta Rivas Mercado
Antonieta Rivas Mercado
María Antonieta Rivas Mercado Castellanos was a Mexican intellectual, writer, feminist and arts patron.- Biography :...
, Frida Kahlo, Tina Modotti, Lupe Vélez
Lupe Vélez
Lupe Vélez was a Mexican film actress. Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer, before moving to the U.S. where she worked in vaudeville. She was seen by Fanny Brice who promoted her, and Vélez soon entered films, making her first appearance in 1924. By the end of the decade she had...
and María Izquierdo
María Izquierdo
María Izquierdo was a Mexican painter. She was born in San Juan de los Lagos in the state of Jalisco; her birth name was María Cenobia Izquierdo Gutiérrez. Her father died when she was five years old and she lived with grandparents afterward in small towns of Aguascalientes, Torreón, and Saltillo...
. Her popularity was due more to her beauty than to her artistic and literary work. She herself described her work as intuitive
Intuition (knowledge)
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. "The word 'intuition' comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning 'to look inside'’ or 'to contemplate'." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify...
. All her self-portraits show oversized, green eyes, but her eyes seem highlighted also in paintings by other artists. Many of her works are undated.
Her works were exhibited in the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 2007, in an exhibition titled A Woman Beyond Time/Nahui Olin: una mujer fuera del tiempo.
Literature
- Adriana Malvido: Nahui Olin, la mujer del sol, ISBN 8477652066, ISBN 978-8477652069
- Pino Cacucci: Nahui, 2005, ISBN 8807016869
- Dr. Atl: Gentes Profanas En El Convento, ISBN 9707270349, ISBN 9789707270343