Renowned art critic, Teresa del Conde, passes away at 79

Renowned art critic, Teresa del Conde Pontones, passed away yesterday at her home as a result of an ischemic stroke. Her family posted a message in the late critic’s twitter account where they confirmed the decease: “It is with great sadness that we inform that Dr. Del Conde has passed away. Her family thanks your sympathies.”

Del Conde was an authority in Modern and Contemporary Art, as well as an expert on the work of Mexican painters José Clemento Orozco and Frida Kahlo. She wrote over forty art books and was a researcher and professor at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She coined the term “Breakaway Generation”, which defined the post-war art that rebelled against Mexican Muralism. She also introduced psychoanalysis into Mexican art studies, as noted by Renato González Mello, head of the Institute of Aesthetic Studies at UNAM.

Del Conde was the recipient of the Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1982 and later received the Rockefeller Foundation grant to complete her research on the art of Frida Kahlo. She was also head of the Mexican Museum of Modern Art from 1991 to 2001.

Cultural authorities and Mexican intellectual figures have joined the bereaved, by posting twitter messages bidding farewell to the iconic art critic: “Teresa del Conde helped us see art with deep and sensitive eyes. You’ll be remembered always professor” posted UNAM’s Museo del Chopo.