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When I asked Mario Palacioswhy he had been self-taught, he smiled placidly.

“Because I didn’t like school.” Clearly,however, his vocation and learning didnot come out of nowhere. Born inMexico City in 1953, from the time hewas a small boy, he drew little figuresand caricatures of his teachers, fellowstudents and relatives. Having a family

of businessmen and industrialists wasnot particularly conducive to a futureas a professional artist. In the midst ofadolescence, a friend gave him twobooks of Toulouse-Lautrec paintings.They were a revelation. From that timeon, in an intense voyage of self-discov-ery that became a therapy in itself, hebegan to paint and visit book storeswhere he spent many afternoons sittingon the floor leafing through art books.Aware that technical training was

essential, in the late 1960s, Mariowent to different workshops to learn todraw from a model and spent time inLuis Nishizawa’s group at the SanCarlos Academy. Without actuallythinking of all this as a hobby, he stillwas not ready to admit to himself thatit might be a life option. He enrolled asa business administration major at theIberoamericana University, but contin-ued to frequent museums and gal-leries. He traveled to Europe twice and

Mario PalaciosA Biographical Sketch

Sylvia Navarrete*

* Researcher and art critic.

Theorem, 70 x 90 cm, 1997 (oil on canvas).

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visited the great museums there. A pas-sionate devotee of art, he was consumedby the need to paint; but he would notreally accept the decision uncondition-ally, and he continued to think of thisgrowing need as research.When his first son was born in 1984,

perhaps as a catharsis, Mario gave in tohis vocation and produced mountainsof drawings and a canvas or two. Hetried to enter the artistic scene. Kno w -

ing no one, he followed the advice ofpainter Ricardo Martínez, and pre -sented his portfolios to the directors ofdifferent galleries. Patricia Sloane,from the Sloane Racotta Gallery, wasim pressed and in 1988 organized hisfirst one-man show of drawings andcollages. The show was named “Cales -thenia” in reference to what wouldcontinue to be for him warm-up exer-cises. The following year he did large

minimalist drawings in charcoal on thewalls of a white cube in an office ofthe Mexico City government Depart -ment of Culture, a piece of ephemeralart that anticipated the “PerishableDraw ings” that he would do at theSloane Racotta Gallery, a factory, a sta-ble and on the walkway of a swimmingpool in Oaxtepec, Morelos. From then on, his work has been

sought out for many collective exhibits

May 1996, 70 x 50 cm, 1996 (oil on canvas).

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and been entered in national competi-tions like the Rufino Biennial and the LaEstampa Biennial, both sponsored bythe National Institute of Fine Arts. Thenthe Expositvm and A Negra Galleriesoffered two consecutive one-man showsfor him. In 1992, Mario did a portfolio ofengravings with printer Alejandro Ehren -berg and another of serigraphs at PabloTorrealba’s workshop. The engravings,titled “Other Senses,” are like micro-

scopic close-ups, shadows in fu gue, deli-cate alterations and rips on the surface ofthe paper that betray almost epidemicwork on the copper plate.The senses are both a tool and a lan-

guage in Mario Palacio’s work. In “OtherSenses” this is revealed in the blendingof forms that evoke throbbing matter inits brute, primal state. It is not exactlyeroticism, but rather an almost mysti-cal contemplation of creation. It should

be noted that Mario is highly knowl-edgeable in theosophy, eso terics, alche-my and Asian philosophy.In his recent work, Mario goes fur-

ther in his experimentation and has inte-grated all human capacities (emotion,instinct, the intellect and skills) toachieve what he calls “an efficient arte-fact.” He composes his work in the sim-plest and most rigorous way around theresearch of universal, archetypical sym-

June 1991, 90 x 70 cm, 1991 (oil on canvas).

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bols: the cross, for example. What mean-ing does the cross have for him and thecollective memory? The horizontal linerefers to time, to the horizon, to circum-stance: it is the expression of the land-scape, of the repre sentation of the worldwithout including Man. The vertical linesymbolizes Man’s energy and, schemati-cally speaking, is his portrait. In somepaintings, this vertical may disappear,replaced by a reflection, a shadow. In

this way, his works are similar to systems.They com bine strict, controlled geome-try like scaffolding with backgrounds inthe manner of freer weaves, made up oforganic, gesturing figures. His palette isspare, almost austere.This unity of structure and figure

reveals the power that the artist attrib-utes both to geometry and reason, andto philosophy and spirituality. “Thearchetypical symbols are truths in

which one can read and learn in day-to-day living, with which one canunderstand more deeply the humancondition,” Mario told me.He developed these new ideas about

painting, drawing and serigraphy in the“Theorem” series, an itinerant exhibitshown in the Oaxaca Contemporary ArtMuseum, the Sinaloa Art Museum andthe Risco House in Mexico City in 1999and 2000. How Mario’s work evolved in

Theorem, Ninth A, 187.5 x 135 cm, 1998 (serigraphy and gold on paper).

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the eight years he did not exhibit is clear.He no longer intends to show its sponta-neous, visceral aspect. Rather, he makesGeorges Braque’s phrase, “I love the rulethat corrects emotion,” his own. Hisintentions have changed: now he seeksvisual purity, a language of certain classi-cal characteristics and a permanentarticulation of that language. A theoremis the statement of a provable truth.What Mario Palacios proposes is to

demonstrate his conviction that art is away of approaching truth, just as scien-tific discourses are. For him, life and artare processes of transformation and con - tinual construction of consciousness.I asked Mario why he had taken so

long to consider himself a professionalpainter, why he had voluntarily isolatedhimself from the artistic milieu. It didnot surprise me when he said he wasreluctant to push himself forward and

promote himself. Neither has he everbeen enthused by the stereotype of theBohemian artist. He is a “builder of ma -ch in ery,” a maker of “formative imagesthat make sense, that work.” Per seve ring,methodical in the extreme, far from allthe noise, Mario Palacios has effective-ly found a poetic of the synthesis of formsand models of thought, in a process ofmaturation that leaves little room forimprovisation and paroxysm.

Shadows in the Botanic Garden, 56 x 43 cm, 1997 (serigraphy on paper). Theorem, March 1999, 37.5 x 25 cm, 1999 (carbon pencil on paper).