(Jesus Christ and Mary)

Jesus Reyes Ferreira

A painting on tissue crepe paper, one of Jesus "Chucho" Reyes Ferreira's primary mediums. What began as an aesthetic way to wrap the goods he sold at his art and antiques shop in Guadalajara, the tissue paper paintings themselves became sought after, and he began to paint and sell them on their own.

Due to the extremely delicate nature of the paper, Ferreira had to "patch" small areas where the paper tore on the verso, using the same type of paper and an unidentified adhesive. He coated the recto in a lacquer, likely to lend material strength to the work.

Ferreira's image of Jesus and Mary borrows from Catholic iconography and Mexican folk art, and the work of Jose Posada and Jose Clemente Orozco. Never formally trained as an artist, Ferreira rejected the notion that he was a "painter," instead referring to his technique as "smearing colors" and his finished works as, simply, "papers." Despite his own views of his work, other artists and collectors greatly appreciated his style, which exhibited the sensibilities of Surrealism and Expressionism. He was often compared to Marc Chagall - who, in fact, once referred to Ferreira as the "Mexican Chagall."