Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa - Art and Film

Celebrating the life and works of Award-winning Mexican cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa (1907-1997), is the latest exhibit at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), co-presented with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

Curated by Alfonso Morales, Curator of Televisa Foundation, the exhibit spans Figueroa's prolific 50-year career.

It is thematically organized and features approximately 300 pieces including film, paintings, photographs, prints, drawings, posters, as well as archival documents.
Acknowledged for his unique visual style and iconic work, Figueroa constructed a distinctive Mexican identity and cultural history, through a unique cinematic style using low camera angles, deep focus photography, and visual dialectics (light and dark). 

Gabriel Figueroa worked with renowned directors such as John Ford, John Huston, and Luis Buñuel, on over 200 films, including Maria Candelaria (1943) for which he won a prize for cinematography at the Cannes Film Festival; Macario (1960), the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film in a Foreign Language; The Night of the Iguana (1964), which earned an Academy Award nomination for best cinematography; Two Mules for Sister Sara (1969); Kelly's Heroes (1969); and Under the Volcano (1983).

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After being nominated an active member of The Academy in 1968; Gabriel Figueroa became president of the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de México in 1972; and then received a lifetime achievement award from the American 

Society of Cinematographers in 1995.

Aiming to increase accessibility of cinematic arts to the masses, Figueroa's imagery often portrayed the workers, the poor, women, indios and campesinos, accentuating Mexican folk forms, roots and people adversities. Figueroa's most original contribution lies in the repeated use of oblique visuals. 

By photographing rectangular objects at an angle to the picture's plane, two visible and two vanishing points created visual tension. Filling the two vanishing points were clouded heavens or 'Figueroa's sky' which, along with his filming technique created a curvilinear imagery moving the viewer's eyes along that curving line, with circles and ovals often accentuating the effects.
As cinematic arts evolved so did Figueroa's work, moving from light and shadow towards color with comedic and melodramatic themes.


The exhibit also showcases one of LACMA's most famous painting, Diego Rivera's Flower Day (Día de Flores) (1925), lithographs by Leopoldo Méndez, and work by contemporary artists, such as Rodrigo Garcia, Melanie Smith and Rafael Ortega, Gonzalo Lebrija, and Juan Capistran and Mario Ybarra Jr., which reflect on Figueroa's influence, artistic contribution, and global legacy.
The exhibit runs from September 22, 2013, to February 2, 2014, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Art of the Americas Building, Level 2, located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036. For more information call (323) 857-6000 or visit http://www.lacma.org/