Landmark works of Mexican art, unseen for 2 decades, go on view in Mexico City

Sixty-eight landmark works from the renowned Gelman Collection of 20th-century Mexican creation — including paintings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera — volition spell connected presumption successful Mexico this period for the archetypal clip successful astir 2 decades.

The grounds is acceptable to unfastened Feb. 17 astatine the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) successful Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park and adjacent May 17. 

Después de casi 20 años misdeed exhibirse en México, @cultura_mx, a través de @bellasartesinba, presenta en el @museoAmodernoMX “Relatos modernos. Obras emblemáticas de la Colección Gelman Santander”: 68 obras clave del arte moderno mexicano que se reencuentran con el público y con… pic.twitter.com/2RhGp5xfSN

— Claudia Curiel de Icaza (@ccurieldeicaza) February 9, 2026

It marks the commencement of a caller planetary circuit for what the Ministry of Culture calls “one of the astir typical collections of 20th-century Mexican modern art.”

Assembled by collectors Jacques and Natasha Gelman opening successful the 1940s, the 68 works signifier portion of a larger 160-piece ensemble that was placed nether the absorption of the Madrid-based Banco Santander Foundation conscionable last month.

The postulation has mostly been retired of nationalist presumption since 2008.

The Mexico City amusement volition diagnostic paintings and photographs that helped specify modern Mexican identity, from muralism to avant-garde experimentation. The exhibit’s rubric is “Modern Narratives: Emblematic Works from the Gelman Santander Collection.”

Jacques Gelman was calved to well-to-do Jewish parents successful St. Petersburg, Russia, and near successful the 1920s aft the Bolshevik Revolution, yet moving to Mexico and gathering his aboriginal wife, Eastern European émigré Natasha Zahalka.

Together they built respective important collections, including European modern art, pre‑Columbian sculpture, and, astir famously, their postulation of Mexican modern art, with cardinal works by Kahlo, Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, María Izquierdo and others. 

“It is precise important and symbolic that the itinerary of this caller signifier begins successful the state of root of the artists who marque it up and wherever the postulation was created,” Culture Minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza said successful a property release.

Originally, the grounds was to debut this summertime successful Spain, wherever Banco Santander is headquartered. However, 27 of the works are National Artistic Monuments nether Mexican law, restricting their mobility and prompting the upcoming Mexico City show.

Frida Kahlo is represented by 10 lipid paintings, including “Self-Portrait with Necklace” (1933), “Diego connected My Mind” (1943) and “Self-Portrait with Monkeys” (1943).

Rivera’s 1943 lipid “Calla Lily Vendor” anchors the conception connected the tensions betwixt contented and modernity.

Works by Tamayo, Izquierdo, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Gunther Gerzso, Carlos Mérida, Jesús Reyes Ferreira and Lola Álvarez Bravo circular retired the show, which is divided into 4 sections: portraits, nature, Mexican individuality and the paradoxes of modernity. 

With reports from El País, La Jornada and The Art Newspaper