Juan Soriano

As part of the temporary exhibition En esto ver aquello. Octavio Paz and Art, which opens in September to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Nobel Prize winning poet Octavio Paz, the Palacio de Bellas Artes will exhibit works by Mexican artist Juan Soriano. Dafne II, on view at the Palacio de Bellas Artes' lawn, is a sculpture in bronze with beige and black film, allusive to the Greek myth of the god Apollo and the muse Daphne, who chooses to transform herself into laurel rather than to give in to the god's advances. As the National Fine Arts Institute (INBA) informs, this work belongs to the Juan Soriano Foundation and Marek Keller A.C., and it weighs approximately 450 kilograms, with a height of two and a half meters, a width of two meters, and a depth of one meter. Visitors will also encounter three other works by Soriano at the Museo de Bellas Artes: Pájaro XIII (2004), a bronze melted into wax, and Niñas jugando (1944) and Niños con palomas (1942), two oil-on-canvas works. Juan Soriano had a prolific career using various materials, genres, and styles. Among the distinctions he received were the National Arts and Sciences Awards (1987) and the Fine Arts Medals (2005).