Until 10 September, the Fundación Casa México is exhibiting The Poet and the Artist. Seamus Heaney and Jan Hendrix in Yagul, which shows a series of silkscreen prints, tapestries, lithographs and illustrated books, the result of the collaboration between the Dutch-Mexican artist Jan Hendrix and Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner, taking the landscape and flora of the ruins of Yagul in Oaxaca between 1992 and 2016 as a reference point.
The exhibition consists of 50 pieces including silkscreen prints, lithographs, tapestries, videos, photographs, books and archival material from various private collections and from the permanent collection of the MUAC (Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, UNAM, Mexico).
From archival material to large tapestries measuring more than six metres, as well as small silkscreen prints, these are some of the works that visitors will find in the exhibition.
The relationship between the two began as a result of Hendrix’s deep admiration for Heaney’s literary work, when in 1980 he became acquainted with the poet’s work. Later, in the early 1990s, their collaboration began with the first book The Golden Bough, which Hendrix illustrated with silkscreen prints of the cacti of Yagul printed on gold leaf.
Yagul is a fortified archaeological site located in the state of Oaxaca in the valley of Tlacolula, dating from 1352, where traces of mural painting have been found. In 2010, UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site.
