For the world, Mexican painting is a vital and solid work: Xavier Castellanos

▲ Year 1973, by Xavier Castellanos, a painting part of the exhibition Mexico and France . Photo courtesy of the painter.

Merry MacMasters

La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, May 10, 2025, p. 5

Mexican painting enjoys great prestige outside the country. Both young and established painters are welcomed in Europe, the United States, and Canada. Mexican painting is a calling card, as it is seen as a solid body of work, full of color and vitality , says artist Xavier Castellanos.

Although he was born in Genoa, Switzerland, where he spent his childhood, Castellanos considers himself a colorful Mexican painter . Color also permeates his landscapes, as can be seen in the exhibition "Mexico and France," open at the Alliance Française in San Ángel. It features 21 urban landscapes, rendered in acrylic on canvas and paper, representative of both countries.

They are Mexican views, whether of jungles, forests, mountains, balconies, or gardens, on one hand, while on the other, they are scenes of Paris or Bordeaux, as well as the beaches of Biarritz , he notes. Half of the work on display was painted recently in Mexico City, and the rest was completed in France three years ago.

Castellanos is also a portraitist; however, this time he focused on landscapes.

-How do you conceive the landscape, figuratively or abstractly?

−They're figurative landscapes; therefore, the viewer recognizes what it is. They're also very colorful.

The artist mentions that he is drawn to the harmonies of all colors: blue, pink, purple, red, and yellow. He uses very bright, vibrant colors .

In his artistic background he recognizes influences from great Mexican painters, such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Pedro Coronel and, above all, Olga Costa.

−Mexico is known for its landscape painting, but how can we innovate within this genre?

−Simply put, the landscapes keep changing, so you can paint and stylize them. Not make realistic or photographic paintings, but stylize them and make them a little more poetic; that is, in my own style. I can also, for example, instead of a blue sky with white or gray clouds, create a sky entirely of orange, gold, or yellow triangles. This way, it's not a realistic or hyperrealistic painting, but rather one that takes on childlike or dreamlike characteristics.

-What landscapes attract you the most?

−Every place is beautiful, from the Atlantic coast in France to the Sierra Tarahumara in Mexico, the Sonoran Desert, the city of Querétaro, and the municipality of Coyoacán.

They are landscapes devoid of human figures, although sometimes a tiny figure can be seen.

Castellanos began painting at the age of four. He had his first solo exhibition in Mexico City at the age of 16, at the Casa del Lago, according to his resume. He studied fine arts at The Art Students League in New York.

Over time, his work has attracted attention in Mexico and is now part of museum and corporate collections. He has been recognized by artists such as José Luis Cuevas and Raúl Anguiano.

He has over 70 solo exhibitions and around 80 group exhibitions around the world, including Japan. A keen traveler, Castellanos currently divides his time between Mexico and Europe. In October, he will have a solo exhibition at a Toronto gallery.

The Mexico and France exhibition will remain open until July 12 at the Alliance Française in San Ángel (San Luis Potosí 26, Chimalistac neighborhood). Visiting hours are Monday through Saturday, and admission is free.

Afp and Ap

La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, May 10, 2025, p. 5

Washington. US President Donald Trump has fired Carla Hayden, director of the Library of Congress. Hayden became the first Black woman to hold the position in 2016, according to an email shared yesterday by Democratic Senator Martin Heinrichel.

Since returning to the White House on January 20, Trump has fired officials from Washington's cultural institutions, the vast majority of whom were appointed by his Democratic predecessors Barack Obama (2009-2017) and Joe Biden (2021-2025).

In February, he announced the dismissal of several members of the Kennedy Center's board of directors who did not share his vision of a golden age of arts and culture, and appointed himself head of the famed concert hall.

Then, in March, he signed an executive order to regain control of the contents of museums and the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington, which he accuses of engaging in racially motivated indoctrination .

Carla, on behalf of President Trump, I am writing to inform you that your appointment as Librarian of Congress is ending effective immediately , according to the text shared by Heinrichel, dated Thursday and signed by a White House official.

The Democratic senator deplored the Republican president's decision, noting in a statement that Trump "is taking his attack on America's libraries to the next level. While the president wants to ban books and tell Americans what to read—or not read at all—Dr. Hayden has dedicated her career to making reading and the pursuit of knowledge accessible to everyone," he added.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has ordered all military leaders and commands to remove from armed forces libraries educational materials that promote divisive concepts and gender ideology, inconsistent with the Department's core mission . The memo adds that they should quickly identify books that are inconsistent with that mission and remove them by May 21.

By then, the release said, guidance will be provided on how to refine that initial list, determine what needs to be removed, and determine an appropriate final disposition for those materials.

It does not specify whether the books will be stored or destroyed. According to the memo, a Temporary Committee of Academic Libraries will provide input on the review and decisions regarding the texts.

This is the most sweeping and detailed directive yet in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's campaign to eliminate diversity and equity programs, policies, and educational materials from the military, and follows similar efforts to remove hundreds of volumes from military academy libraries.

Early last month, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, removed nearly 400 titles from its library after receiving instructions from Hegseth's office. Two weeks later, the Army and Air Force libraries were ordered to review their collections. The purge led to the removal of books on the Holocaust, feminism, civil rights, and racism, as well as Maya Angelou's famous autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ."