Casa Manana: The Morrow Collection of Mexican Popular Arts (review)

Dwight W. Morrow and his wife Elizabeth Cutter Morrow were not enthused when he was named ambassador to Mexico in 1927. Yet, shortly after their arrival, they fell so in love with the country that they bought a weekend house in Cuernavaca, "Casa Mañana," where the Morrows could relax after a week of negotiations in the capital. In the three years they spent there, the Morrows accumulated a remarkable collection of Mexican folk art. The children of the couple gave 159 items to their father's alma mater, Amherst College, following the death of their mother in 1955.

This work serves as both an exhibition catalog and a description of the Morrow collection. It is beautifully illustrated and features an introduction by Ilán Stavans, as well as four interesting essays written by James Oles, Rick A. López, Susan Danly, and Anthony W. Lee, all presented in a bilingual format. Unfortunately, the Spanish translations do not share the beautiful and profuse illustrations accompanying the English originals.

James Oles provides a succinct and highly interesting piece on exhibits of Mexican folk art outside Mexico from 1820-1930. His essay introduces the reader to a whole range of personalities surrounding the Morrows who were involved in the "marketing" of post-revolutionary Mexican folk art in the United States beginning in the 1920s. Since the Ambassador knew little Spanish, he depended on other foreign savants who shared his enthusiasm for Mexico and its indigenista art and rhetoric. Chief among these were René d'Harnoncourt, an Austrian emigré then working in a Mexico City artesanía shop, who would eventually become the head of the Rockefeller-created Museum of Modern Art, and William Spratling, later of Taxco silver fame.

In a highly original article, Rick A. López concentrates on the Morrows' impact on Mexico as cultural ambassadors. López features two terrific portraits of Morrow, one of which was by Roberto de la Cueva del Río—"Dwight Morrow Dressed as a Campesino 1928"—and who was the mural artist for the Instituto de México, in Washington, D.C. López credits Morrow and a substantial group of Americans in Mexico, including Frances Toor and Anita Brenner, for helping to transform a reconsideration of Indianness into a nationalistic narrative.

However, the chief beneficiary of Morrow's passion for mexicanidad was Diego Rivera. Thanks to a recommendation from Spratling, Morrow paid Rivera $12,000 to paint a mural as a gift from the United States to Mexico. In his thought-provoking essay, Anthony Lee describes the resulting mural, which depicts the history of Cuernavaca and Morelos, and covers 125 square meters of wall space, as a complement to those covering the walls of the Palacio Nacional. In this work, Rivera created another masterpiece of both artistry and myth within new boundaries and parameters. First, he demonstrated the ingrained supremacy of Mexico City over the rest of the nation, as whole portions from the Palacio Nacional were inserted with few revisions. Moreover his Zapata, with a gentle white horse, was uncharacteristically calm, in deference perhaps to his patron's sensitivity to "banditry" or to revolution. Nor did Rivera include the contemporary Cristero violence raging throughout the state.

Ultimately exhibitions succeed or fail according to the art displayed. D'Harnoncourt greatly admired the lacquered wood pieces from Olinalá, Guerrero and Michoacán and there are some splendid examples here, as well as of textiles (such as one adorned with a photo of President Calles). The Morrows did not always rely on others' advice, and they bought much from local craftspeople in the area surrounding Cuernavaca. While the collection is an interesting look at folk art in the 1920s, the reader would do well to compare the examples given here with the extraordinary pieces in Grandes maestros del arte popular mexicano (1998...