Lourdes Grobet (Mexican, 1940–2022). <em>Untitled (Cactus Painted Blue)</em>, ca. 1986. Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome), image: 7 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (19.7 x 19.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Marcuse Pfeifer, 1990.119.11. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1990.119.11_PS11.jpg)

Lourdes Grobet (Mexican, 1940–2022). Untitled (Cactus Painted Blue), ca. 1986. Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome), image: 7 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (19.7 x 19.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Marcuse Pfeifer, 1990.119.11. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1990.119.11_PS11.jpg)

DOWNLOAD

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

What is the significance of using house paint?

Lourdes Grobet's use of house paint signifies her role in the anti-academicism trend in Mexico at the time.

She rejected the style of the Old Masters, and instead focused on art as a means of expression and personal language.

Deciding to work with house paint instead of artist's paint was unusual and unacceptable within historic conventions, and was a move away from (and against) academic art. In her words, "...schools are the same everywhere: they lay down rules that I wasn't prepared to follow."

Did she paint directly onto trees and cactuses?

She did! She would go out into the fields (sometimes with her children) and paint!

She started doing this as a student in England, and when she returned home to Mexico, she said, "After my experience in England, I was curious to see what the Mexican landscape would look like if I painted it."

Wow. That is subversive! Thank you for all the great information.

Tell me more.

Lourdes Grobet's use of house paint in the landscape signifies her role in the anti-academicism trend in Mexico at the time.

She felt that traditional uses of photography and painting were very outdated, and focused instead on personal expression. Using house paint instead of artist's paint, a cactus instead of a canvas, and photography as a means of expression was an unacceptable thing within academic conventions!

What is the significance of using house paint?

Lourdes Grobet uses house paint, an every-day, almost industrial, material as a deliberate rejection of the rules of academic fine art that she felt were too narrow. She felt that the strict, formal rules and traditions were "outdated."

She chose this "unacceptable" material as a means to develop a unique and personal language.

Untitled (Cactus Painted Blue)

Lourdes Grobet

Photography

Lourdes Grobet was an art student in England in 1977 when she challenged divisions between painting and photography by using her camera to document local landscapes she dramatically altered with colorful house paint. Her professor failed her, and her Derbyshire neighbors called the police. In 1982 and 1983, still inspired, Grobet returned to this concept, siting her experiments across her Mexican homeland in Morelos, Michoacán, and Oaxaca.

ARTIST Lourdes Grobet, Mexican, 1940–2022

MEDIUM Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome)

DATES ca. 1986

DIMENSIONS image: 7 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (19.7 x 19.7 cm) sheet: 9 7/8 x 8 in. (25.1 x 20.3 cm) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Signed on lower right recto of mat: "M.L. Grobet"

COLLECTIONS Photography

ACCESSION NUMBER 1990.119.11

CREDIT LINE Gift of Marcuse Pfeifer

EXHIBITIONS

Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Lourdes Grobet (Mexican, 1940–2022). Untitled (Cactus Painted Blue), ca. 1986. Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome), image: 7 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (19.7 x 19.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Marcuse Pfeifer, 1990.119.11. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1990.119.11_PS11.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 1990.119.11_PS11.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2022

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

What is the significance of using house paint?

Lourdes Grobet's use of house paint signifies her role in the anti-academicism trend in Mexico at the time.

She rejected the style of the Old Masters, and instead focused on art as a means of expression and personal language.

Did she paint directly onto trees and cactuses?

She did! She would go out into the fields (sometimes with her children) and paint!

Wow. That is subversive! Thank you for all the great information.

Tell me more.

Lourdes Grobet's use of house paint in the landscape signifies her role in the anti-academicism trend in Mexico at the time.

What is the significance of using house paint?

She chose this "unacceptable" material as a means to develop a unique and personal language.