Dafne Cruz Porchini: Modern Circuits

Modern Circuits: The Display of Mexican Art (1900-1930)

Ángel Zárraga (1886-1946),
Still life with Pomegranates, 1914,
Oil on canvas, Photo courtesy of Kaluz Collection

International Art exhibitions provide insights for understanding the shaping of a modern national image. In the case of Mexico, most of these art exhibitions revealed a view of a primitive, artistic and historic country. This research project is devoted to the history of Mexican exhibitions, particularly (but not only) dealing with exchanges between Europe and the United States. Furthermore, the perspectives for the study of exhibitions allow Porchini to explore the spaces of presentation and display, but also as instruments and ideas about artistic production and reception. Porchini strongly believes in the comparative analysis of common elements regarding the creation of transnational archetypes and joint cosmopolitan models set within the parameters of modernity.

Dafne Cruz Porchini (1973) received her PhD (with honors) in Art History from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). She served as Deputy of Curatorial Affairs at the Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA (2007-2011). She holds an MA in Art History. She has published in several national and foreign art catalogues, as well as specialized publications. She has presented at colloquiums and symposia in the United States, Spain, Japan, Argentina and Chile. Among her curated exhibitions are: Imágenes del mexicano (Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 2010); Dessins mexicains du XXme siecle (Mexican Cultural Institute, Paris, 2010), among others. In February 2015, she was a Getty International Program Fellow attending the College Art Association in New York. In 2014, she received a Terra Foundation for American Art/Research Travel Fellowship to the United States. She was awarded with the Genaro Estrada Prize for the Best PhD dissertation in the History of Foreign Affairs Policies (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Mexico).