Izquierdo stood out from her (male-dominated) artistic circle especially by using her art to bring attention to the struggles facing modern Mexican women living under traditional patriarchy. Today she is celebrated as a pioneering woman artist who fought against oppression and censorship by the art establishment and who provided a path for younger generations to follow in creating new works that proudly celebrated their heritage and identity.

María Izquierdo (1902-1955), was the first Mexican woman to show her work in the United States. Izquierdo had a great impact on Mexican art, especially on contemporary Mexican women artists. She was highly influenced by Diego Rivera, who served the director of Academy of Fine Arts in 1929 and later became pivotal in helping launch Izquierdo's career. Then in the 1940s the man who once served as her number one supporter, hindered her career. Mexican muralists, Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, and David Siquerios all proclaimed she lacked both talent and experience to complete a cycle of murals in the The District Federal Department – pressing the issue until they themselves received the mural commission.

Izquierdo is well known for rebutting the Mexican muralist actions with her famous quote: "it is a crime to be born a woman and have talent".

Last year, Izquierdo featured in the 2024 Venice Biennale’s “Foreigners Everywhere” exhibition curated by Adriano Pedrosa.

Our new arrival is a favourite subject for Izquierdo, her niece. The cover for her retrospective at National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago is of the artist with her nieces.

Here is the exhibition catalogue. Our work is similar to a piece on page 76 the PDF:
https://nmma-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1cf1bc41-2491-4d69-9a78-7d8d449590fb/MariaIzquierdoCatalogue.pdf

The artist is collected at the Whitney, the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, to name a few.

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Condition Report:
Condition is excellent, other than a small tear that was restored on bottom right corner.