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Lot 204
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Cristina Cardenas "La Nina de los Espejos" (2005)
Cristina Cardenas "La Nina de los Espejos" (2005)
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Cristina Cardenas (Mexican-American, b. 1957). "La Nina de los Espejos" color lithograph, 2005. Signature and date in pencil at lower right. "P/P" (printer's proof) in pencil at lower left. Printed by Segura Publishing Company, Tempe, Arizona. A striking color lithograph by Mexican-born artist Cristina Cardenas titled "La Nina de los Espejos" which translates to "The Young Girl of the Mirrors". This lithograph is held in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, acquired in 2005, as well as other important permanent collections. According to SFMOCA's description, "A girl with flowing black hair stands on top of a chair barefoot with eyes facing forward. She wears a cream-colored dress with pink flowers over her chest and two white stripes toward the bottom end. In her right hand, she holds a small mirror, and a circular object in her left hand that is wrapped around her index finger. The cursive text at the bottom reads 'la nina de los espejos' translated to 'the girl of the mirrors. Cardenas gives women, who are frequently the protagonists of her work, a permanent and positive voice. They are depicted as goddesses, traitors, victims, virgins, and martyrs, they serve as metaphors for strength, innocence, subjugation, and courage." Size: 30.125" L x 22.25" W (76.5 cm x 56.5 cm)

Artist Statement: "Through my artwork I seek to provide the viewer with the opportunity to consider the challenges and differences that define us as individuals. My work addresses the experiences of people living on this US/Mexico border. As a Mexicana artist living on this border, I feel compelled to expose my country's history, traditions, conflicts, politics and cultures and explore the impact of the US experience. These ideas and traditions are almost always portrayed through the experiences of women. The figures are rendered to show the strength and perseverance of women, both personally and as individuals, engaged in struggles for justice. I portray these stories, often graphically, by incorporating fragments of the human figure as well as icons from my history. My images are then layered and stacked one atop the other to tell the story. These images bleed through and speak to one another through deposits of gouache and water color. I am deeply attuned to the struggles and achievements of the Mexican people as a mestizo culture, a term that describes the bi-racial and multicultural reality of my homeland. This acknowledgement permeates my work and informs my choices of medium, iconography and technique and helps to provide a constant link to and honoring of my history."

About the artist: "Unlike many Mexican-born Chicana/o artists, Cristina Cardenas did not relocate to the United States as a child but remained in Mexico into early adulthood. Her artistic education included studies in watercolor, drawing, and etching at the Instituto Allende and coursed in architecture at the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Occidente. In 1980, she received her B.A. in painting from the Universidad de Guadalajara. After moving to the U.S. in the mid-1980s, she studied print-making at the University of Arizona in Tucson, earning her M.F.A. in 1990. When Cardenas relocated to Tucson in 1986, she did so to distance herself from what she considers the patriarchal society of her homeland. Her work is in large part autobiographical and introspective, an appraisal of personal identity and self-image. Cardenas gives women, who are frequently the protagonists of her work, a permanent and positive voice. Often, these women protagonists in her work serve as embodiments of strength, innocence, subjugation, and courage. Cardenas acknowledged the Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco as a major influence in her work; this is evident in her neofigurative, exuberantly expressionist painting style, as well as her bold brushwork and palette. And, like the Mexican muralists, as well as U.S. artists such as Luis Jimenez, her paintings embrace her ethnic background and cultural heritage." (Source: Alana de Hinojosa, "The ASU Hispanic Research Center Presents: Teaching & Visual Thinking Strategies with Cristina Cardenas," May 2024, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.10207.27043)

"Cristina Cardenas is a Tucson artist known for her public murals and lithographs. Born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, Cardenas moved to Tucson in the 1980s and received an MFA in printmaking from the University of Arizona. Cardenas is internationally renowned for her art, and has been the recipient of prestigious grants from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arizona Foundation, and the Lila Wallace residency at the Claude Monet Museum in Giverny, France. Locally, she is a founding member of Raices Taller, an intergenerational cooperative art gallery and workshop, and teaches at Pima College and Las Artes Youth Art Program. Her work often features political themes, like women's empowerment and migrant deaths along the Arizona/Mexico border." (Source: "Mapping Chicana/Mexicana Voices in the Borderlands" website)

Provenance: private Bozeman, Montana, USA collection, acquired before 2015; consignor was co-owner of Segura Publishing Company, Tempe, Arizona and acquired this piece directly from Segura during his tenure

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#191012

    Condition:
  • Overall excellent. Signature and date in pencil at lower right. "P/P" (printer's proof) in pencil at lower left. Arches France watermark at lower right corner visible when held to the light.

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by Artemis Fine Arts
January 30, 2025 8:00 AM MST
686 S. Taylor Ave., #108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

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