DALLAS — “I personally believe that materials have a soul of their own,” the Mexico-born, Texas-based artist Octavio Medellín wrote in “My mission,” he continued, “was to search in them their behavior so that I [could] communicate with them.” Whether he was using wood, stone, metal, or clay, materials mattered to Medellín. The artist saw these as entities that he would, in his words, “become part of” and transform into something universal. Throughout his long career, Medellín combined his materials’ essence with his own creative vision.
Octavio Medellín: Spirit and Format the Dallas Museum of Art is the artist’s first museum retrospective. Curated by Mark Castro, the exhibition features roughly 80 works, including sculptures, drawings, prints, and photographs from Medellín’s initial experiments in the s to pieces completed just before his death in As a prolific artist and beloved teacher, Medellín helped define the Texas art scene for six decades. His work lives on in his many public commissions at institutional and religious spaces across Texas, and in the Creative Arts Center, which he founded in Dallas in Castro’s exhibition is a thoughtful tribute to Medellín’s lifelong p
The following is an excerpt from the exhibition catalogue for Octavio Medellín: Spirit and Form, opening for free at the Dallas Museum of Art on February 6,
In , the artist Octavio Medellín (–) wrote a short text that appears to have been the beginning of a book project that he later abandoned. Opening with a poem, The Masterpiece, presumably by the artist, … it reads as a stream of consciousness, unedited and without paragraph breaks. At times the text seems akin to an artist’s statement…. On the third page he writes:
“…we think of materials as purely a medium, I personally believe that materials have a soul of their own particularly if you are to work directly with them, each one is different than the other. My mission was to search in them their behavior so that I communicate with them and develop a sensitive feeling and become part of them, not to take for granted their natural formation but to be inspired and invent a form that is not entirely what’s there, but a mixture of both.”
Medellín’s artistic practice was defined by his exploration of the duality that he alludes to in this unpublished text. He demonstrated a drive to understand and mas
Octavio Medellin
Mexican-American artist Octavio Medellin was born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in Fleeing the Mexican Revolution to San Antonio in , Medellin studied at the San Antonio Art Institute and later at the Chicago Art Institute. In he returned to Mexico and made a two-year study of his native country’s art, customs, and history, which profoundly influenced his art. By , Medellin moved back to San Antonio and taught sculpture at the Witte Museum. He returned to Mexico in for a six-month study of the ruins at Chichén Itza, sponsored by Lucy Maverick, which he documented with a series of sketches of the ruins. From through the s, Medellin taught many types of media, including ceramics, mosaics, glass, and lost-wax process in bronze casting at the North Texas State Teachers College [now the University of North Texas] and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts School. He also instructed art majors from Southern Methodist University in his studio at the Dallas Museum, eventually opening the Medellin School of Sculpture in Dallas [now the Creative Arts Center of Dallas] in He designed and implemented major art projects in Dallas throughout the s, and continued to teach until semi-re
Octavio Medellin papers, circa circa
Octavio Medellin () was a painter, sculptor, and educator in Dallas, Texas. Medellin was born in Matehuala, Mexico to parents of Otomi heritage. His family moved to San Antonio, Texas when he was eight years old and he became a citizen of the U.S. in Medellin attended the San Antonio Art School with classmate Xavier Gonzalez and studied with José Arpa. He also studied at the Chicago Art Institute for a short time. Medellin returned to Mexico in order to study the arts, culture, and history of the country and was greatly influenced by the Mayan and Toltec ruins and artifacts he saw there. He returned to San Antonio in where he taught at the Witte Museum. Under the sponsorship of Lucy Maverick, an artist he met at La Villita Art Gallery who was involved in the historic preservation of San Antonio, Medellin returned to Mexico a few years later to visit the Yucatan region of the country. In , Medellin opened the Medellin School of Sculpture that is now the Creative Arts Center of Dallas. He also taught at North Texas State University and the Dallas Museum of Art. He completed numerous commissions in the state of Texas including a monument at C
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