Fernando and Gerardo Montiel Klint are two of a kind...almost. Thanks to the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) and Fotoseptiembre, this tandem is taking their show on the road.
For those who say talent is not inherited, the brothers Montiel Klint are proof of the contrary.
The pair of artistic photographers, originally from Mexico, may be newcomers to the annual Fotoseptiembre Photography Festival. Yet with over a decade of combined professional and gallery experience between the two, including the duo made doubly good sense.
“This year, the San Antonio Museum of Art was invited to be part of a larger theme for Fotoseptiembre—the city-wide celebration of the centennial of Mexico’s 1910 Revolution,” said David S. Rubin, the Brown Foundation curator of Contemporary Art. “Since I had been doing an exhibit for Fotoseptiembre, we’re adding a contemporary component to that festival as well. Michael Mehl, the director of Fotoseptiembre sent a short list of artists and that’s how we came across Fernando and Gerardo.”
No Escape: Photographs of the Brothers Montiel Klint at the San Antonio Museum of Art runs from September 4 until February 13 in the Focus Gallery. While artists like Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson also have similar composition, the voyeuristic element in Gerardo’s work and the surreal claustrophobia of Fernando’s collection has the makings of a seminal exhibition.
What’s more, calling this a “collection” is quite appropriate as all the works come from different series which are showing together for the first.
“Of all the work I looked at, I found their work the most exciting and I thought it was the most cutting-edge. It’s very contemporary in terms of its beauty. There are very well known artists who use this approach to photography and all of them are at the cutting-edge of the global art dialogue,” continued Rubin.
Perhaps even more stunning is the different approaches Gerardo and Fernando take with their work. While not toiling away at their advertising company, the two have a blossoming art career as individual artists. Credit the heavily psychological elements in their work to their father, a psychologist who allowed his children to see the darker and melancholic side of the human experience.
While one brother used such inspiration to examine the internal struggle of seemingly hopeless circumstances, another chose to expose the alienation of a society drowning in its own technological brilliance. The irony you ask? SAMA’s latest success was brought about by social networking.
“I had to find these artists and the way I did was through Facebook,” Rubin explained. “I sent them both a message saying I was interested in their work so we began an e-mail dialogue and we saw most of their body of work. What I like most is we have a series which hasn’t been shown before.”
Despite the many accolades that have built up for the artistic pair, the call from cyberspace was far from expected. According to Fernando, it was suspiciously similar to friendly ribbing
“Getting that message from David was a surprise,” said younger brother Fernando Montiel Klint. “We were very happy, but we did not know how the museum knew our work. At first we thought it was joke by our friends until we researched the museum and contacted David.”
Joshing aside, the opportunity to show the work of the brothers Montiel Klint together was more than an avenue for artistic notoriety, it was a rare event in itself considering the pair have only shown together twice in the collective careers.
For Fernando, his commentary on modern life stops short of being an indictment, but is no less poignant in his Texas debut.
“What I wanted my work to do was to provoke people. I wanted to make the viewer an active participant in looking at the art and see the global theme of the work. I think my work shows how we’re losing something the more we are inundated with modern technology,” Fernando explained.
Breaking new ground in nothing new for the Montiel Klint brothers since their career has been influenced by everything from films, psychology, literature, classical art and even alchemy. With ideas sprouting from almost anything, staying fresh only seems natural. It is this eclectic approach that has precipitated a following in the international art world.
The gaggle of attention for shows across the country makes a strong case for avoiding a very tempting label for either of these dynamos.
“I don’t really consider myself an emerging artist since I’ve been shooting for a decade. I have a career that has taken me to New York and other galleries in the United States. This show will definitely give me exposure to people who would not normally see my work,” contended Fernando.
For older brother Gerardo, ten years to be exact, 1994 ushered in his first official year as a professional photographer. It also started an obsession with influential classical art and the development of a legacy left by his work.
“From the beginning, I have always liked that kind of art which has stood the test of time,” explained older brother Gerardo Montiel Klint. “I really wanted this work to have a lasting effect on the viewer like a classic work of art. I didn’t want a transient reaction. So it’s a play on Jan Vermeer’s paintings of women. These pieces are influences by the masters, but it a contemporary spin using Mexican women dealing with modernity.”
Gerardo admittedly understands there is nothing gentile about his work. It is unapologetic and haunting; furthermore, it is far more personal when you consider the women in his series are close friends in dire straits.
How does one ask to be let into moments of such solitude? For Gerardo, honesty is the best policy.
“There was a collaborative effort since many of these women were my friends who were apprehensive about getting photographed amid a deep depression. I’m also a huge fan of documentary cinema. So these photos have a contemplative quality to them like a film,” Gerardo concluded.
No Escape: Photographs of the Brothers Montiel Klint joins Tierra, Libertad y no Re-Eleccion! Photography from the Mexican Revolution in the celebration of the city-wide celebration of the centennial of Mexico’s 1910 Revolution. More information on both exhibitions can be found at www.samuseum.org.
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