Jaime Sabines Seen Through the Visual Arts

Jaime Sabines returns through the eyes of visual artists in Es la sombra del agua, an exhibition that gathers nearly 100 works by 85 artists at Centro Cultural San Ángel.

The show honors the Mexican poet on the centenary of his birth and marks 30 years of Casa Jaime Sabines. Four works come from private collections. Among the artists represented are Gilberto Aceves Navarro, Pablo Rulfo, Alberto Castro Leñero and Gabriel Macotela.

Journalist Pilar Jiménez Trejo curated the exhibition with art critic Luis Ignacio Sáinz. Jiménez Trejo, who has spent much of her career researching Sabines’s life and work, says several generations of artists encountered him as a recurring and essential literary figure. Readers often began with his love poems before turning to his writing on solitude, death and the human condition.

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artists who are readers of Sabines, who had worked on some books and, of course, all the photographers who photographed Sabines during his lifetime

The project began with roundtables featuring academics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, who discussed Sabines as a literary presence touching on universal themes. The exhibition followed, bringing together artists who read Sabines, contributed to books about him or photographed him during his lifetime.

The photographic work on display includes images by Daisy Ascher, Gilberto Chen, Maritza López, Ulises Castellanos, Rogelio Cuéllar, Eliane Cassorla, Eunice Chao, Barry Domínguez and Roberto Portillo. Artists were invited to submit work connected to a poem. Some contributors, including Aceves Navarro, knew Sabines personally, while collectors lent works by artists who are no longer living. The exhibition remains open until December 30, alongside three planned roundtables intended to coincide with Museum Night.

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The result is there, with the emotions that Sabines leaves behind.