In the last eight months, two magnificent exhibitions of Mexican Modern Art have been presented. The first one, "Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910-1950", was presented at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, form October 25, 2016 to January 8, 2017. And the second one, "Mexico 1900-1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco, and the Avant-Garde", which was presented at the Grand Palais in Paris, from October 5, 2016 to January 23, 2017, is currently displayed at the Dallas Museum of Art until July 16, 2017.

These two exhibitions together show masterpieces by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Angel Zarraga, Saturnino Herran, Dr. Atl, Maria Izquierdo, Roberto Montenegro, Jose Chavez Morado, Juan O'Gorman , Carlos Merida, Gunther Gerzso and many other Mexican masters.

The works were borrowed from important public and private collections from different parts of the world, mainly Mexico and the United States. Works that can hardly be seen together again.

It is wonderful to see how art breaks boundaries, how it contributes and gives of itself. Thanks to migration, artists from all over the world have traveled temporarily or definitively, from their countries of origin to other distant lands, sometimes as students, sometimes as teachers, to learn or to teach, and actually both at the same time, since it is difficult not to absorb one another, sharing and learning their theories, styles, techniques, and cultures.

In the case of Mexican art, after the arrival of the Spaniards to Mexico, artists from Spain began to come to Mexico, bringing their knowledge of architecture, sculpture, painting and music. And finally in the nineteenth century the first art school was created in Mexico, the great Academy of San Carlos, where teachers from Europe like Eugenio Landesio began to teach the techniques and knowledge accumulated until that moment. One of the first disciples of this academy and also one of the first Mexican artists that went outside of Mexico to show his works, was Jose Maria Velasco, presenting them in Paris and Chicago.

This was the beginning of a coming and going of artists from Mexico to the United States and Europe and vice versa. At the beginning of the twentieth century it was very common for Mexican artists to go to Paris, and other regions of Europe to learn the artistic currents of the moment. This was the case of artists like Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Angel Zarraga, Roberto Montenegro, Joaquín Clausell, and later in the second half of the 20th century, Pedro Coronel, Francisco Corzas, Francisco Toledo, Rodolfo Nieto, Rodolfo Morales, Fernando García Ponce, Alejandro Santiago, among many others.

New York, California, Chicago became commonplace for artists such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jose Clemente Orozco, and many others. In these places they made murals, left important works in collections, influenced different local artists and also learned of them. Other artists such as Miguel Covarrubias and his wife Rosa Rolanda not only lived and contributed to the art of the United States and Mexico, but also from around the world, visiting, absorbing and transmitting the art and culture of these places and others such as Yokohama, Tokyo, Kobe, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Makasar, Java, Bali, Sumatra, Singapore, Port Said, Naples, Paris, etc. 

Other artists went or came to stay, such as the case of Alfredo Ramos Martínez who emigrated to California, Alfredo Castañeda who emigrated to Spain, Alfredo Arreguin who emigrated to Seattle, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Carlos Merida, Francisco Zuñiga, Joy Laville, who emigrated from their respective countries to adopt Mexico as their new homeland. Some others lived for a while in Mexico and then returned to their home country as Jose Arpa Perea who traveled from Spain to Mexico, then to San Antonio, Texas, founding the first art school in Texas and finally returned to Spain. Others born in Mexico but of European migrant parents like Frida Kahlo and Gunther Gerzso.

On the other hand collectors and galleries have been in charge of bringing and carrying works by these artists and others such as Rafael Coronel, Ricardo Martínez, Rafael Cauduro, Gustavo Montoya, Alejandro Santiago to name a few, outside of Mexico to the United States and Europe mainly.

In addition, the great work of international museums that maintain permanent collections, or make temporary exhibitions such as these two magnificent exhibitions, shows the great importance of Modern Art of Mexico, but even more, the universality of art and the human being, because this history is the same but with different names in all countries of the world.

Art is universal, it dilutes borders, unites humanity!