The Denver Post
Background for Aztec display is a work of art all by itself
Steven Rosen; Denver Post Art Critic
August 18, 1992 Page: 1E

 

 

By the time the exhibit "Aztec: The World of Moctezuma" opens Sept. 26 at the Denver Museum of Natural History, Stephen "Stevon" Lucero's monumental mural of a crowded Aztec marketplace will be visual background.   

In the foreground will be three-dimensional educational props - mannequins, and re-created Aztec baskets, fruits and vegetables and agricultural products. All that is what's known as "foreground." The foreground and painted background together form a diorama - a specialty of natural history museums.And after the show concludes on Feb. 21, his work very probably will be destroyed. Since it was painted on Sheetrock and Masonite, attached via screws to a metal framework at its corners, removal will be difficult if not impossible.   

That is why Lucero was savoring the recent moment when his mural was finished and completely unobstructed after 71/2 months of work. He brought his video camera to the museum and slowly panned the view of the colorful 16-by-55-foot mural. And he had company.   

The museum's president, Harry Lewis Jr., as well as its director, John Welles, brought an executive from the Gates Foundation to see the finished work. "It's wonderful," Lewis said. "I know you're a perfectionist. Are you satisfied with it?"   

Lucero answered, "I could use another month. Artists are never finished." Welles added, "I think it's going to take people's breath away when they see it."   

This thought excited Lucero, who responded: "I've never done a piece for the public before. This is a turn-on, to know people will see it."   

The "Aztec" exhibit is designed to make its audience believe they are temporarily part of the civilization that existed in central Mexico shortly before the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. To that end, the show uses priceless artifacts on loan from Mexico as well as some reproductions, a re-created (1/10th scale) Aztec temple, music and sound effects, and dioramas and murals.

One large mural, Carlotta Espinoza's landscape depicting the canal-like chinampa agricultural system, was finished before Lucero's and now serves as backdrop for diorama-style "foregrounds."   

But Lucero's imaginative interpretation of the Aztec marketplace at Tlatelolco is the largest of all seven planned murals. And, although he worked with other artists on Denver's City Walls Project, this was the first such wall mural he had done by himself. He's been a painter for almost 25 years. He is 42.   

Once commissioned (for $12,500) by the museum to do the work, he was provided with photographs of a marketplace model at Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology. "It was only 5 or 6 inches tall, but it had the details of the fruits and vegetables," he said. "They were so small, they were just abstract things.   

"See all those dogs there," he said, pointing to a section of his mural. "If you look at the photographs, you couldn't tell those blurred objects were dogs."   

Using acrylic paint, Lucero first added a blue sky with a roller, then air-brushed an additional layer over that. "But about 90 percent was painted with little tiny brushes."   

Lucero's problem - since the work was to be as realistic and factual as possible - was to maintain consistent perspective on the curved surface. He did this by using the mural's center as the spot where everything must be absolutely correct in size. Thus, while painting along the curves, he could compare his figures with the way others would look at the center.   

"In a diorama, the background is usually just a background, although this one is quite complex and well done," explained David Pachuta, the museum's exhibit designer. "We usually don't do depictions of people and architecture in our dioramas."   

Lucero is proud of his accomplishment, and said he'll remain proud even if it must be destroyed when the exhibit is over. "It was an honor for me to do this. This touched me spiritually," he said.   

"Five hundred years ago (Columbus' arrival in the New World), a tragedy happened to these people. Five hundred years later, this is a beginning of a reconciliation."

Special to The Denver Post/Peter Fredin

LABOR OF LOVE: Muralist Stephen Lucero's piece is the largest of seven planned for the upcoming Aztec show.
Author: Steven Rosen; Denver Post Art Critic Page: 1E Copyright 1992 The Denver Post Corp.