Clown

Clown is an example of self-taught artist “Chucho” Reyes’s “smeared papers”—delicate sheets of paper painted with brilliantly colored washes of self-prepared aniline dye. He often painted on throw-away materials used to wrap items sold in his antique shop. His charming subjects were inspired by popular and colonial art, as well as the work of Georges Rouault and Marc Chagall. While Reyes moved in the same circles as Mexican School artists and looked to similar sources, his personal approach to art-making did not share their commitment to promoting an official narrative of Mexican identity.