“Lourdes Grobet”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Lourdes Grobet Argüelles (born 25 July 1940) is a contemporary Mexican photographer, best known for her photographs of Mexican Lucha libre wrestlers.^[1] Grobet spent some time as a painter and when she found the medium was not as valuable as photography at the time, she decided to start a new path.

Grobet wanted her work to contribute to history, so she started on a path bring about social relevance in her photography.^[2] Her photography led her to explore the Lucha Libre like she had wanted to as a child. She spent a lot of time getting to know the luchadores. Grobet has done some theatre and video and has published a few works such as: Lourdes Grobet, an autobiography, and Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling, Lourdes Grobet: Lucha Libre (2005), Espectacular de Lucha Libre (2008), Lucha libre Mexicana (2008). Grobet has had quite a lot of exhibitions, and has received many grants and awards for her work.^[3]

Early life

Grobet was born on 25 July 1940 in Mexico City, Mexico. She grew up in Mexico City with her parents. She was not openly encouraged to do art by her family, however, they were very sociable people. When she was young she was interested in wrestling, though not allowed to see any matches, her father believed it was not the type of thing a woman should watch.

Grobet was introduced to dance and from this, her interest in art began. She was interested in the harmony that came with it that complimented her gymnastics. She had been in dance for five years and had started with Gloria Contreras as her teacher. After being there for five years she was forced to stop any sort of exercise for quite a long time because she became ill and had a bad case of Hepatitis.

Once Grobet was back on her feet she took a formal painting class at the Academy of San Carlos. Her parents did not like the views of the school and sent her to work under a Catholic professor named José Suárez Olvera, who painted murals for the Church of San Francisco. She did not care for his work much because she felt it lacked originality. Grobet asked herself what art is, “Looking around, and after asking myself the inevitable questions about what art is, it became clear that for me it was a language, a way of saying things, and so I had to find the best way of saying them.”^[4]

Education

Lourdes Grobet studied plastic arts at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico and graphic design and photography in the United Kingdom at Cardiff College of Art and Derby College for Higher Education. She was very moved by her professor Mathias Goeritz, from whom she learned that mass media showed a new way of expression. When Goeritz gave up teaching, he asked Grobet to be his assistant while he worked on stained glassed windows for the Mexico City Cathedral. She accepted and he became one of her favorite mentors. She studied in England in 1977 and had done a few landscape paintings. She ended up failing, however, because the photography faculty did not like that she altered the landscape and strayed away from keeping it purely documentary.^[2]

Career

Katy Horna introduced Grobet to the world of photography, though the main influences in her early career were Mathias Goeritz, Gilberto Aceves Navarro, El Santo and others.^[4]

Grobet studied as a painter in Mexico for some time and then took a trip to Paris in 1968, it changed her life and the way that she viewed the art world.^[5]

While she was in Paris she visited a lot of art galleries Visiting the Galleries she discovered Kinetic Art and because of this, she likes to work with Multi-Media. She spent some time working with a Jazz concert controlling lighting and projections that would change according to the music. When Grobet returned to Mexico, she decided that she wanted to focus on photography, after she got back home she decided to burn all of her old work and start over.^[4]

In 1981 Grobet released her first set of photographs. At the beginning of her career in photography, she was part of a group called Club Fotográfico, formed by Pedro Meyer in 1977. With her participation in this group, she was able to revitalize photography in Mexico, which lead to a movement called the Grupos. Grobet was focused on establishing a community-based perspective.^[6]

Grobet spent some time with Indigenous people and during this time it was one of the great struggles for them. She took the time to learn more about them and photograph them in a theatrical way. She wanted to relate to Indigenous people using her artistic initiative, so they had made costumes and scenery of their own and she then took their photos. Later on, Grobet took interest in the Mayan Culture. Wanting to learn more about the Mayans she went to the suburbs, this was a less common action, but she wanted to steer clear of any tourists. She wanted to get accurate information and explore an area less traveled. She discovered temples that were made by an unknown civilization and she decided they were to be called the Olmayazetec.^[2]

After her education and her travels, she came back to Mexico. She once again started to explore her childhood interest of luchadores.^[4] She found that there was very little information pertaining to the luchadores and so she decided that she wanted to make them more known to the world.^[7]

Grobet spent thirty years devoted to taking pictures of the luchadores and studying their way of life.^[1] She spent time photographing Lucha Libre wrestlers inside and outside of the ring. She decided that she wanted to take photographs not only of them in their masks, but also in the comfort of their own homes. Grobet wanted to show that they lived normal lives, just like everyone else. She got very close with well known Lucha Libre wrestlers such as: El Santo, Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras, Sagrada, Octagon, Misioneros de la Muerte, Los Perros del Mal, and Los Brazos.^[8] Much influenced by Mathias Goeritz, the Polish sculptor from Gdańsk (Poland) and by Arceves Navarro, a Mexican master of art murals, who were her teachers, Lourdes Grobet worked on pictures of El Santo, one of the most important Mexican wrestlers, and a hero of Lucha libre who starred in more than 50 films. Since 1975, she has published more than {{formatnum:11000}} photographs of the sport, including those on the sport in the United States since the 1930s, and as an important part of Mexican popular culture, adopting a sociological attitude. The sport involves many costumes and masks, leading it to a sport-carnival air which is much appreciated by Mexicans.

Grobet has had over one hundred exhibitions of her photographs, both group and solo exhibitions. She had her work exhibited in the London Mexfest festival in 2012. She won an award at the Second Biennal in Fine art photography.^[3] In 1975, for the exhibition Hora y media, she transformed a gallery into a photographic laboratory. She developed the photographs, but without fixing them, and displayed them on three walls. While the public looked at the photographs, the lights from the gallery meant that they disappeared.

In 1977, she presented Travelling, an exhibition of photography on an escalator.

Among other works, she took: Paisajes pintados, Teatro campesino, Strip Tease.

Personal life

Grobet was originally married to a man named Xavier Perez Barba and they later divorced. She had a lifelong dream of parachute diving and Xavier did not care much for this dangerous idea, this, however, was only one of their disagreements. She also had a dream of becoming an astronaut and had applied to go on the Morelos Satellite, but was not one of the few chosen.^[4]

Grobet went on to study in England at Cardiff College of Art and Derby College for Higher Education.^[3] Towards the end of her time there she met Marcos Kurtycz and fell in love with him. They kept in touch for two years after she returned home to Mexico.^[4]

In Mexico she met Felipe Ehrenberg; with whom she shared her work and he helped her bring her work to fruition.^[4]

Work and process

As Grobet is making her photographs, she desires to understand reality better. According to Grobet, “She has used this photographic experience as an inductive process in order to understand or "live" reality (or realities) rather than illustrate certain preconceived ideas. She is not scared to employ different (sometimes contradictory) languages available to her to speak of her particular experience and standpoint, thus sacrificing formal purism. In her own way, Grobet manages to use photography to relate to herself, to relate to us and to take action in the problematic reality that is Mexico.” ^[2]

She works to keep her own thoughts and feelings out of her work and her photographs include culture, social, political, and identity. When Grobet is working, she is not afraid of her failures and believes that they are just as important as her successes. Grobet strives to show images that show energy and vitality, free from singular identities and the importance of them to Mexican culture. Grobet’s work is about the community and she wants to show people something valuable.^[2]

Grobet likes to work with others; she enjoys collaborating with others and was later involved in the Mexican Photography Council. Some of the work that she does is collaborative, while others, she likes to do on her own time.^[6] When photographing the luchadores she wants to show their tough side, but she also wants to show the fragile side as well. Grobet wants to uncover the roots of the Lucha Libre. She wants to show that the Lucha Libre is important to the culture of Mexico and that they are meant to be related back to the time of the Aztecs. Grobet found that there was not much information found about these fascinating Luchadores.^[7] She wants the luchadores to get the recognition they deserve as Mexico’s important cultural figure.^[7]

Awards

Publications

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2010 "Espectacular de Lucha Libre"/National Museum of Art, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Group exhibitions

1999-2000 "Visual Voices of Mexico" / Long Beach Ca.,Washington D.C., Tijuana Mexico

1994 "A Shadow Born of Earth" / San Diego Ca., Oklahoma and other cities of the US.

1979 "Mexican Photography" / Sweden, Germany, France and other European countries

Theatre, film, and video

2008-09 Frontier/ Musée du Quai Branly, Paris France. Museo Archivo de la Fotografia

2008-09 Fluxus/ Musée du Quai Branly, Paris France. Museo Archivo de la Fotografia

Works