Tamayo Arrelanes Rufino, Iron Cross, lithograph, 88.5 x 89.5 cm. Carla Bianpoen

To commemorate 60 years of Mexican-Indonesian relations, a unique exhibition of Mexican art is being held at the National Gallery in Jakarta.

'€œThese are works of some of the most renowned Mexican artists of the 20th century,'€ says Mexican ambassador Melba Pria.

Indeed, the artists in the show titled '€œVisual Anthology of Mexico'€ are well known, including those who are still actively engaged in their art practice.

Interestingly, the works are from the collections of the Ministry of Budget and Public Finance and Patrimonial Heritage, which received them from the artists as '€œpayment in kind'€ through a fiscal program proposed by artists themselves, including the now famous Diego Rivera.

Formalized by presidential decree in 1957, artistic works were accepted as tax payment after being professionally scrutinized by a special selection committee. This is how a collection of important artists was preserved for four decades.

As this exhibition '€” and other shows before this '€” reveals, Mexico has been a haven for many artists from abroad, perhaps comparable to Bali.

But unlike in Bali, which mostly served to kindle inspiration (with a few exceptions), Mexico became a place where foreign artists arrived after they had made a name for themselves elsewhere. They then settled in Mexico and assimilated, becoming Mexican and honored as Mexican artists who have contributed to the country'€™s rich heritage and the plurality of the art scene.

In this exhibition there is Angelina Beloff, who was born in St. Petersburg and meandered in Europe before coming to Mexico after she divorced Diego Rivera. She became a member of the Liga de Ecritores Y Artistas Revolucionarios and co-founder of the Salon de la Plastica Mexicana.

Her work in this exhibition is an impressionistic oil on canvas featuring Santa Maria Park.

The legendary Leonora Carrington, the renowned British-born surrealist painter and novelist, lived in Mexico City for more than 60 years, and the city is where she produced numerous paintings, sculptures and novels.

In this show she is represented with a gouache. Simply titled Gramercy Park IV, the work features opaque figures as if stopped in their tracks by a kind of apparition.

Yet, most of the works in the Jakarta show were made by Mexico-born taxpayers. Diego Rivera needs no introduction, being one of the Mexican icons on the international art scene, and his painting here, Collecting Snow, seems to take a step back from his renowned murals.

A work by Rodolfo Morales, Beyond the Silence, extends the Mexican imagination that was influenced by the Russian-born French painter Marc Chagall with his colorful dreamlike surrealistic paintings featuring figures floating in the air.

Rodolfo Morales, Beyond the Silence, oil on canvas, 140 x 175.5 cm. Carla Bianpoen Colorful and using almost the same color scheme are the works by Luis Granda Garcia, an architect-turned-painter in his Face for All, and Iron Cross by Tamayo Arellanes Rufino, who combined modern European styles with Mexican folk themes.

The more contemporary works in the show reveal the genius of women artists: the green, polychromed steel installatin Labyrinth Mandala by Cecilia Domenge; the rubber tire with cut-out Mexican symbols of pre'€“historic times by Betsabe Romero; a gelatine silver print, In the Name of the Father, by Graciela Iturbide; and the stirring video animation by Patricia Henriquez.

The exhibition of 47 artworks includes paintings, gouaches, engravings and video, and comes with a catalog, artist biographies and a curatorial essay by the curator from the Ministry of Budget and Public Finance of Mexico.

'€œVisual Anthology of Mexico'€
April 9 - 30
National Gallery Jakarta
Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur
Jakarta.