LEAVING BEHIND THE REMAINS OF THE WRECK: Extracts from a Cultural History

This book by Víctor Manuel González Esparza, previously published in Spanish by the publishing house of the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes in 2016 under the title Leaving the remains of the shipwreck. Fragments for a cultural history, is now translated into English by Martha Julieta Ramírez Campos, with the same compilation of essays by the author, made up of the works already published: "Leaving the remains of the shipwreck. Fragments for a cultural history"; "The smiling faces or the elves of ecstasy"; "The Osuna Codex or The Governor's Painting"; "The Popular Art Exhibition or the emergence of the avant-garde, Mexico, 1921"; "Towards a new cultural map?"; and the recently created texts: "Between 'culture and civilization'"; "Posada and the avant-garde"; and "Two divertissements." In his epilogue, added to this edition with respect to the previous one, González Esparza indicates that:

"In the case of this book that collects some of my essays, it is the reader who finally recreates what I present here, starting from a new history of art that avoids the great authors or the general styles and finds in the search between the popular and the fine arts different ways of seeing. Hence the idea of ​​Lucien Febvre that gives this book its title, “leave behind the remains of the wreck” to find new ways to help us rethink our own history of art. So, it seems to me that in the fragments that make up these essays I have been able to find clues to walk on paths without feeling confusion or despair, without feeling the burden that represents our past (again Febvre) which does not allow us to move towards other ways to explore and understand history".