dieser beitrag wurde verfasst in: englisch (eng/en)
verfasserin/verfasser: Susannah Joel Glusker
titel: Anita Brenner. A mind of her own
+: Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press 1998
«The Mexican Revolution is said to be among the best-documented conflicts in history. It was covered by independent journalists such as Lincoln Steffens, who sought interviews with powerful leaders who fascinated him on both sides of the border. John Kenneth Turner's interviews were published as Barbarous Mexico and are still in print in Spanish. John Reed joined the front lines of battle. William Randolph Hearst sent reporters, photographers, and filmmakers to record real battles.
Hearst also openly distorted information and published forged documents in an effort to rouse anti-Mexican feeling in the United States. He had his own agenda: get Congress to approve sending U.S. troops to Mexico to reinstate the Diaz government and revoke the new constitution. He was determined to retain the land he owned in Mexico at whatever cost. The Hearst reports can be considered forerunners of the U.S. tendency to publish sensationalized negative news about Mexico, now commonly called 'Mexico bashing.'
Anita Brenner's work is the exact opposite. She presented Mexico in a positive light, stressing the Mexican point of view. She was one of two journalists who consistently depicted Mexico positively in the New York Times. Her position was that of an independent liberal who defendet workers, the disenfranchised, or those who were treated unjustly, no matter what their origin. She, like many Mexicans, was angered by U.S. atemptes to interfere, and she felt that the Mexican people had a right to run their own revolution and country without foreign intervention. In her words: 'Due to having been born in Mexico, I have tended to side with the underdog and be sympathetic to rebellion and revolution whose deepest psychological, economic and social roots have always intrigued me and into the research of which I have put much time.'» (pp. 12–13)
«The challenge of analyzing Anita Brenner's life and work called for following and understanding diversity. Her work is multidisciplinarian and multifaceted. Anthropologists see Anita primarily as the author of Idols behind Altars. Jewish intellectuals see the person who defended Mexico as a place for immigration and who fought anti-Semitism. Art historians credit her with making the artists of the Mexican Renaissance known in New York. Some Mexicanists see her throught her articles in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. Veterans of the Spanish Civil War remember her exposé of the underground police group known as Chekas. Mexicophiles remember the seventeen years of Mexico/This Month. Most of her work listed in the bibliography is related to Mexico. […]» (p. 14)
«John D. Rockefeller II was a major stockholder in oil companies in Mexico. It was to his advantage to foster stability in the country. His strategy included sponsoring the arts, giving left-wing artists work to keep them happy, funding murals in Mexico, and supporting exhibits and concerts in the United States, primarily in New York City. Frances Paine was in charge of the effort, which included theater productions, Carlos Chavez concerts, and art exhibits. Anita declined Paine's invitation to work as her employee and chose to collaborate instead. Anita's participation meant that Frances did not have to travel to Mexico to contact artists and get their work for exhibits. It also facilitated Anita's search for spaces (alleries and museums) in New York in which to exhibit Mexican artists' work. They complemented each other. Anita had the artists' work in New York and Frances had the contacts with the museum and gallery world.
The combination of the Mexican consulate's help in importing the art, Frances Paine's contact with the 'Art Center,' and Anita's selection of artists yielded the desired results. The first exhibit opened at the Art Center in 1928, and it included work by, among others, Jean Charlot, Jose Clemente Orozco, Maximo Pacheco, Diego Rivera, and Francisco Goitia.
After it closed Anita brought a stream of people to her apartment to see it. Among those who came was Alma Reed, who at that time hosted a salon. The relationship between Alma Reed and Jose Clemente Orozco is well documented, although the fact that it was Anita who introduced them is seldom mentioned. Alma arranged exhibits and eventually opened her own gallery, Delphic Studios, to exhibit and promote Orozco and other Mexican artists. She was a key factor in the promotion of his work, negotiating contracts for murals at Dartmouth College and Pomona College (in California) and publishing a book about him, which Anita reviewed in New Masses.» (pp. 81–82)