Recuerdos de Mexico (Memories of Mexico)

Edgar Miller
1931
Gouache on paper
L 44.5, W 56 cm (unframed)

This unique painting, in black gouache, a paint very similar to watercolor, depicts a scene of the Mexican countryside, with travelers in the foreground making their way to a nearby puebla, or village. Some of Miller's early influences were the great artists and muralists that revolutionized Mexican modern art. Great painters including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros had become increasingly popular not only in their native country but internationally, and particularly in the Midwest, where these artists garnered attention and work for their commissioned projects and exhibitions.

Miller himself traveled to Mexico frequently throughout his lifetime. His first trip to the country was early on in his career sometime around 1920, with subsequent trips over the next few decades, sometimes even with his family and children. This painting commemorates one of these trips around 1931. Miller tastefully borrows elements of Mexican modernist styles, particularly the semi-abstract works of Orozco, who also showcased the Mexican pastoral. Miller's painting shows the rich variety of eye-pleasing natural and human-made features of both the Mexican landscape and the charming village in the distance. On the right, a group of children stroll with a dog. On the left, a man sleeps under a bush.

This piece was originally gifted to a friend of Miller's who also lived at the Carl Street Studios, a designer named Stuart Rae. Eventually, a descendent of the Raes came to cherish it and keep it, until it was acquired to be a part of the Glasner Studio collection in 2018.