The UBS Art Gallery

Mariana Yampolsky’s initial involvement with Mexico’s fine arts scene was with the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Popular Graphic Arts Workshop), a printmaking cooperative dedicated to furthering the aims of the Mexican Revolution. Founded in 1937, the Taller brought together many leading artists of the era to produce art promoting progressive and democratic causes. The Taller disseminated images among the poor and working classes in cities and rural areas in the form of broadsheets, wall posters and handbills. Yampolsky helped the Taller reach an even broader audience, serving as curator during its heyday in the 1950s and sending exhibitions to museums and galleries around the world.

Yampolsky’s career as a printmaker with the Taller is little known today, and this exhibition will mark the first presentation of the artist’s prints in the United States. Illustrations on themes such as education and social justice, allegories of peace and aspects of popular life were the early expressions of her lifelong commitment to progressive causes and to the Mexican people. Cine, genios y abogados (Movies, Geniuses and Lawyers) (undated), a linoleum-block print produced for the Day of the Dead, is a densely-packed “calavera,” or satirical scene of skeletons, in an industrial urban landscape. The print La bomba atómica or ¡Nosotros no! (The Atomic Bomb or Not Us!) (1954), expresses the anxiety of the Cold War era from the point of view of Mexicans, poignantly picturing a mother hugging her child as a white plume of smoke looms menacingly in the background.

Cine, genios y abogados, Mariana Yampolsky

La bomba atómica or, Mariana Yampolsky

Yampolsky first experimented with photography in the late 1940s, initially documenting folk art artifacts, then studying with renowned photographer Lola Alvarez Bravo. By the early 1960s, she had left the Taller and fully dedicated herself to the medium of photography, seeing it as the most contemporary and widely accessible form of artistic expression. Yampolsky traveled to the countryside to photograph the indigenous and mestizo people, chronicling their daily lives and rituals over the subsequent four decades.

The work Huipil de Tapar (Headdress) (1962) offers a glimpse of everyday life, as a native woman walks through a rural Mexican landscape. The image features strong geometric forms, including the white triangular cloth of her headdress and the columnar shapes of the well and her skirt, which are combined with intense patterns of light and shadow to evoke a timeless scene dually influenced by traditional architecture and modern composition. The photograph Mujeres Mazahuas (Mazahua Women) (1989) depicts the nobility of a group of impoverished mothers and children, bathed in dappled sunlight. Influenced by Dorothea Lange’s images of the rural American poor, Yampolsky captures expressions of pride, resilience and grace, and evinces a deep empathy for her subjects.

El ángel exterminador, Mariana Yampolsky

In addition to her photographs of people, Yampolsky extensively documented Mexico’s architecture and landscape. The photograph El ángel exterminador (the Exterminating Angel) (1991) shows the back of a one-armed, carved stone angel with wings aloft. The solid form of the weathered figure, before a wide expanse of sky, is both majestic and unsettling. The artist’s photographs of nature are also some of her most abstract. Columna salomónica (Salomonic Column) (undated), a close-up image of the stalk of a maguey plant, plays with patterns and textures, yet exhibits the formal rigor and meditative quality of Yampolsky’s compositions.

Mujeres Mazahuas, San Augustín Metepec, State of Mexico

Founded in 1991, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York was established along with thirteen other Institutes throughout the United States as part of the "Program for Mexican Communities Abroad." The main purpose of this program was to nurture a sense of national identity among the people of Mexican origin living in the United States by strengthening their links to Mexico's history and traditions. Both an independent U.S. not-for-profit organization and the New York cultural branch of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Mexican Cultural Institute is committed to generating awareness of the richness, dynamism and cultural diversity of Mexico as a democratic, plural and creative nation. Through art exhibitions, performances, film screenings, panel discussions, readings, book presentations and other activities, the Institute in collaboration with leading New York organizations, develops and co-sponsors events that showcase the uniqueness of Mexico's art and culture, and infuses New York with the variety of Mexico's traditional and contemporary cultural and artistic expressions.

UBS has a longstanding and ongoing commitment to the support of the arts and culture. UBS sponsors four exhibitions each year in The UBS Art Gallery, located in the lobby of its building at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York City. Through its exhibition program, the Gallery offers non-profit arts and cultural organizations a midtown Manhattan exhibition space and the opportunity to introduce their programs to a new audience. The UBS Art Gallery enables many institutions to organize and mount exhibitions that might not otherwise be seen. These exhibitions encourage interest in the arts among the hundreds of employees, clients and members of the general public who pass through the UBS building each day.

UBS also has its own art collection. Recognized internationally as one of the most important corporate collections of contemporary art, The UBS Art Collection comprises more than 900 paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures by many of the world’s leading artists from 1950 to the present. UBS is proud of this heritage of collecting and embraces the Collection as a treasure to be shared with our employees, clients, shareholders and other individuals passionate about art through international loans and tours of selected works. To further share our Collection with the public, UBS provides permanent online access to works in the Collection, information on the artists and online exhibitions via an interactive web museum at www.ubs.com/artcollection.

UBS is one of the world's leading financial firms, serving a discerning global client base. As an organization, it combines financial strength with an international culture that embraces change. As an integrated firm, UBS creates added value for clients by drawing on the combined resources and expertise of all its businesses. UBS is the world's largest wealth manager, a top tier investment banking and securities firm, and one of the largest global asset managers. In Switzerland, UBS is the market leader in retail and commercial banking.

UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in 50 countries, with about 39% of its employees working in the Americas, 37% in Switzerland, 16% in the rest of Europe and 8% in Asia Pacific. UBS's financial businesses employ around 72,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SWX Swiss Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).

Exhibitions at The UBS Art Gallery

25 Years Later: Welcome to Art in General
August 16 – November 9, 2007

Studio in a School: 30 Years
November 23, 2007 – January 11, 2008

Josiah Wedgwood Ceramics from the University Art Museum SUNY Binghamton
January 24, 2008 – April 18, 2008

Hours and Admission

The UBS Art Gallery is located in the UBS Building at 1285 Avenue of the Americas (between 51st and 52nd Streets) in New York City. The Gallery is on the ground floor of the building and exhibition hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Admission is free.