An artist who loved Brownsville, remembered

The Brownsville Museum of Fine Art will present a retrospective of the work of Mexican painter Jose Salazar. Salazar passed away in 2006 after painting for nearly 70 years and was a longtime friend to many Brownsville residents.

More than 80 of Salazar's canvases exhibit the artist's unique style, honed from Ancient and Renaissance methods.

Salazar developed a process of layering paint using a palette knife to create nebulous figures that emerge and disintegrate into thick canvasses. Mothers, circus groups, lovers, and matadors surface from the dark, textured backgrounds, lending their own light to the space.

Many of the paintings were brought to the museum from Mexico City, where Salazar's family had been storing them. When he passed away, his family contacted the museum to arrange for a tribute.

Salazar had a long established relationship with the Rio Grande Valley. He loved Charro Days and created several posters for the annual festival. One of those works, ‘El Jarrito,' was later chosen for the State of Texas Millennium Poster in 2000.

"They're quite mysterious," said Jennifer Cahn, the museum's curator. "People often call them impressionistic, but they're not really, because the impressionists were concerned with light; he's not necessarily. He's not looking to create something that's easily read."

Cahn says that each time she returns to the paintings, they reveal something new to her. The hands of a masked figure suggest a second pair of ghostly hands, holding the mask up. A puppeteer peeks out of a carvivalesque swirl, revealing the visage lifted straight from Giotto.

"There's a lightness and happiness to most of his work," said Cahn. "And everyone says that he was a very happy and entertaining person with a great sense of humor."

During his life, Salazar exhibited paintings all over the world. One work, commissioned on behalf of the bishops of Mexico, was presented to the pope in Rome.

"A Tribute to Jose Salazar," received financial support from the consulate of Mexico in Brownsville. An opening reception and lecture by the artist's son, Zacarias Salazar, will begin tonight at 6 p.m.