{"id":775538,"date":"2026-05-05T19:05:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/775538\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T19:05:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:05:25","slug":"pedro-reyess-new-lacma-commission-sparks-criticism-in-mexico-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/775538\/","title":{"rendered":"Pedro Reyes\u2019s new Lacma commission sparks criticism in Mexico – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mexican artist Pedro Reyes recently unveiled Tlali (2026), a four-metre-tall Olmec-inspired volcanic-stone sculpture of a female face, installed on the exterior of the new David Geffen Galleries<\/a> building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma). But the work, now part of the museum\u2019s permanent collection<\/a>, has drawn backlash in Mexico. An open letter addressed to Lacma and signed by nearly 80 cultural figures, claims that it is a new version of a piece that was scrapped in 2021 from a project to replace the 1877 statue of Christopher Columbus on Mexico City\u2019s Paseo de la Reforma.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn art, memory is one of the most valuable assets, and it is striking that its absence would lead a respected museum to include, in its new building, a work that in another country was the subject of well-founded condemnation,\u201d reads the 23 April letter<\/a> published by the Spanish-language art criticism site Cubo Blanco.<\/p>\n

The preceding project, Tlalli (Nahuatl for \u201cEarth\u201d), is tied to debates in Mexico over public monuments. In 2021, authorities decided not to reinstall the Columbus monument\u2014a symbol of colonisation\u2014and announced that it would be replaced with an Olmec-inspired sculpture by Reyes representing Indigenous women. But opposition from more than 300 cultural figures and collectives<\/a> led to the project\u2019s cancelation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is inadmissible to appoint Reyes, a male artist who does not identify as Indigenous, to represent \u2018the Indigenous woman\u2019,\u201d a 2021 petition against his commission<\/a> reads in part, adding that such a monument would negate \u201cthe diversity of Indigenous women\u201d and \u201creproduces the silencing and invisibilisation of women\u2019s struggles and their Indigenous communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Critics of the new work allege that the Lacma commission is guilty of many of the same missteps as the 2021 commission for Mexico City. \u201cRather than repairing a historical rupture, the [2021] proposal sought to place on a pedestal a vagueness typical of 19th-century national statuary, with neo-indigenist overtones,\u201d reads the 23 April letter. It also notes the removal of an \u201cl\u201d from the title to \u201cappeal to anglophones\u201d and the use of a Nahuatl word for an Olmec-inspired work. After the previous project\u2019s cancellation, Reyes told Hyperallergic<\/a> he supported the open call that followed.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, in 2022, feminist activists transformed the former site of the Columbus statue into the Glorieta de las Mujeres que Luchan (Roundabout of the Women Who Fight), an \u201canti-monument\u201d\u2014featuring a figure of a girl with a raised fist\u2014against gender violence in a country with alarming femicide rates. Authorities have repeatedly threatened to remove it without success.<\/p>\n

Signatories of the 23 April object to Reyes\u2019s new commission on many of the same grounds that ultimately led to the project\u2019s cancellation in 2021. \u201cThe context and possible interpretations may differ, but this commission is the same one denounced in Mexico for Indigenous stereotypes and perpetuating colonialism,\u201d Mar\u00eda Minera, an art critic and signatory of both the 23 April letter and the 2021 petition, tells The Art Newspaper. \u201cMost concerning is that its original site has become a symbol of feminist vindication: relocating this folklorising figure disrespects that struggle and the lives lost.\u201d She adds: \u201cDialogue is part of art, but Reyes\u2019s sculpture is a decorative gesture from a past era: nationalistic proposals are obsolete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other issues with the Lacma commission have also been raised. \u201cI find it deeply disappointing when a major museum renovation does not consider critical museology and how museums shape social identity, heritage and knowledge through power dynamics,\u201d says Karen Cordero Reiman, art historian and curator who signed the recent letter. \u201cIt would have been important to consider the piece\u2019s social and political context and its problematic role in narratives about the representation of women and Indigenous cultures through public sculpture.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Art Newspaper, a Lacma spokesperson describes the workas \u201centirely different in purpose and meaning\u201d from the work proposed for Mexico City in 2021, noting that it offers the reimagined sculpture \u201ca new location, context and opportunity for discussion\u201d. The spokesperson adds that the face\u2019s features were reshaped, \u201cemphasising the fragmentary qualities of the face and lava blocks\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoignant, androgynous, fragmentary and mask-like, the work echoes ancient American fragments in our collection, particularly avian and jaguar motifs characterising Olmec masks,\u201d Michael Govan, Lacma\u2019s chief executive and director, said in a statement. He also emphasised the added that the commission\u2019s visible armature was central to discussions with the artist: \u201cMuseums are a kind of armature for history, as the past must be interpreted carefully and thoughtfully in a museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reyes did not respond to requests for comment through his galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mexican artist Pedro Reyes recently unveiled Tlali (2026), a four-metre-tall Olmec-inspired volcanic-stone sculpture of a female face,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":775539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,171,74369,14004,10158,317812,11642,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-775538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-los-angeles-county-museum-of-art","13":"tag-mexico-city","14":"tag-museums-heritage","15":"tag-pedro-reyes","16":"tag-public-art","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116523534028334883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}