01 de May 1984
The exhibition José Jara (1867-1939) Una generación entre dos siglos: del porfiriato a la posrevolución was presented from May to August 1984. The strikes that took place at the beginning of the century in the Academy of San Carlos were done by youths that later on would establish the Escuela de Pintura Mexicana. These youths created a myth that, integrated with other manifestations of a challenge against the culture of the porfiriato had, later on in the postrevolutionary phase, the beginning of muralism, which was the effect of a drastic cut regarding the Academy. The painters between two centuries, truncated or confined, had no idea of being pioneers for no one, they thought they were advanced pioneers, authors of final artworks, responsible artists with their art and time.
The Museo Nacional de Arte proposed to approach them like a generation, to expose the meaning that they had in this bridge where they were about to fall in the darkness. Their collective thought aimed to build a nation. Even today, the year 1910 rises up as a barrier, behind which they remained frozen, in a culture that we don’t feel as our own. Their work exemplifies an important moment in the way of defining a national cultural identity; in ways that we may not perceive, alive in the current nation’s controversy. That controversy emerged with the independent movement which is the sense of our national duty.