01 de Sep 1988 - 30 de Sep 1988
The Museo Nacional de Arte contributed with efforts along with the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the Museo Regional de Guadalajara, of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, who tried to recover from the oblivion, one of the figures that, in the plastic world of the 19th and 20th century, defined to a great extent the artistic trends of this period of time circumscribed to the Belle Époque. The exhibition was entitled Rafael Ponce de León. De lo real a lo legendario and it was presented in the Museo Nacional de Arte in September 1988.
The artist transcends in his interest for dominating oil, pastel, and watercolor, techniques that he conjugates with singular skills and exhibits his mastery of lines, since early stages. With this talent, he learned the significant traits of the human nature. Some of them full of pain, others with sarcastic shades, but always compatible with the interest and love that the artist shows to the human existence. Guadalajara was the space where Ponce de León made an incursion in the artistic discipline. He went to Paris where he participated in the fascinating Bohemianism in Montmartre. He had a premature death in spite of his youth and enthusiasm for defeating his tragic destiny. His artworks are a testimony of the great that artist that immortalize with his pencil and paintbrush the man in his daily life.