With a Thousand Devils on Horseback

With the exhibition titled "With a Thousand Devils on Horseback," the Museo Carrillo Gil assumes its role in Mexican Culture: the institution is named after the modernist collector that created and curated a collection of artistic values centered on "the three great masters," along with other creators that are central to contemporary Mexican art, a group of young artists from the last quarter of the last century and a few others from the 21st century. In addition to this array of artistic figures, the collection also offers an essential visit to disciplines and materials. Assuming its responsibility, the museum presented the invaluable, deserved and awaited retrospective of the work by Víctor Fosado (Mexico City, 1931–Cancun, 2002), an artist that synthetizes the early diversity of Mexican artists, his natural inclination to experiment, a high regard for popular traditions and handcrafts and the amplitude of fields in which he expressed his work. Víctor Fosado was a painter, goldsmith, actor, objetivist, musician and promoter. In Mexico City, Víctor Fosado fulfilled the desires of many admirers of popular art who never dared to promote it or sell it. Without getting confused, he simultaneously worked in a handicraft shop and developed his own work. Many artisans and visual artists alike are appreciative of the opportunities that he created for promoting, exhibiting and selling their work, to become known, and be able to make a living doing so—as attested by the many important videos containing interviews. In addition to his facet as a cultural promoter, Víctor Fosado performed in musical concerts with indigenous instruments and also created jewelry. These aspects represent two of the highlights of an exhibition which also includes monitors that showcase his talent as a film actor. Besides establishing an interdisciplinary center in his café Las Musas, the work by Víctor Fosado transcended borders through international exhibitions that were highly admired by personalities like André Breton, among others. Within the diversity that characterized his life and work, Fosado offered an early example of decentralization by moving to Cancun and promoting the arts there. The exhibition "With a Thousand Devils on Horseback" confirms the consistency of the legacy from pre-Columbian cultures that permeates the present.