A FANTASTICAL
GROVE AT THE
FOWLER MUSEUM

by Scarlet Cheng

The Tree of Life is an age-old archetype that appears in art and literature the world over. Some may be familiar with the Biblical story, in which the Garden of Eden is said to contain “the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.” In India, the symbol is represented by a voluptuous woman with her arm around a tree that blossoms with flowers. In China it can be seen in ancient “money trees” made of precious metals and adorned with fantastical animals that celebrate the association with bounty, vitality, and the connectedness of living things.

A new exhibition at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History examines the concept’s incarnation in Mexico, where it has taken popular form in ceramic, candelabra-like constructions whose elaborate decorations and structures often appear to defy gravity and the pottery medium itself.

“Ceramic Trees of Life: Popular Art from Mexico,” on view from May 4 – December 28, presents more than 65 works dating from the 1950s through the 1990s and explores the historic roots of this tradition and the tree’s evolution as both ritual object and highly-prized collectible.

Made of hand-modeled clay, some of the trees are fired and burnished, retaining a reddish terra cotta color, while others are painted with bright colors after firing. Human and animal figures, as well as floral and decorative motifs, festoon these objects that range from a few inches tall to 20 feet high—the largest in the Fowler exhibition measuring about four feet. Most of the pieces on display have been selected from the Fowler’s own collection of Mexican art.


Tree of Life candelabra with peacock pot (before 1967), H. 40 cm, artist unknown, Acatlán de Osorio, photo by Don Cole. Unless otherwise noted, all works illustrating this article are from the Fowler Museum’s Gerald Daniel Collection of Mexican Folk Art, donated by the Daniel family.

“This is an exciting opportunity to feature one of the strengths of the Fowler’s permanent collection,” says museum director Marla C. Berns. “We’re particularly pleased to be showing this material in a city where so many feel personal pride in the creativity and the accomplishments that come to us from Mexico.”

Curated by Leonore Hoag Mulryan, the author of two books on Mexican art, with Delia A. Cosentino, consulting curator of Latin American art, the exhibition begins with an introduction that traces the various origins of the trees. Contemporary trees from Mexico embody aspects of ancient indigenous traditions like those of the Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec, as well as customs of European Catholicism in which metal candelabras and incense burners were used by friars at the time of the Conquest.

After the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), the government eagerly promoted local arts as part of an effort to articulate a new, post-war identity for Mexico. Luminaries like muralist Diego Rivera, painter Frida Kahlo, artists Miguel and Rosa Covarrubias, and education minister Jose


Vasconcelos collected and displayed Trees of Life and other popular arts, finding inspiration in the lives and work of Mexico’s rural, often indigenous populations, and bringing their work to a wider audience.

The completion of highways
linking the United States and Mexico facilitated travel, and more Mexicans and Americans began to visit one another’s country. Around the middle of the 20th century, the Trees of Life became popular objects for visitors and collectors as various villages and regions developed their singular styles of expression. By the early 1970s, when 52 trees were placed in Mexican embassies throughout the world, the Tree of Life had become, in effect, a quintessential symbol of Mexican culture.

Ideas for these delightful sculptures can come from anywhere. Herón Martinez of Acatlán, whose family
had long been making pottery for daily use, “got ideas from dreams, from everything,” says Mulryan. Sometimes inspiration comes from the reality of life in the region. In one Martinez tree, small animals hang onto a tree trunk, perhaps reflecting the survival instincts of local animals who scamper up trees during flash floods in the region. The Martinez pottery is known for being unpainted and burnished to a glowing surface.

After the introductory section, the Fowler exhibition displays works from three towns where the art form is strong and thriving—Izúcar de Matamoros and Acatlán de Osorio, both in the State of Puebla, and Metepec in the State of Mexico—then proceeds to focus on the families whose works have become especially prized amongst the cognoscente. The works of Flores, Castillo, Soteno, and Martinez are often sold directly to dealers, who in turn sell them to collectors and tourists. “The Trees of Life seems to be universally liked,” says Mulryan. “People feel charmed when they see them.”

Over time, and despite stylistic differences, certain motifs have emerged in trees made by artists working in these different communities. One section of the exhibition groups works by recurrent themes, such Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; acrobats and circus performers dangling from branches; death and the afterlife, as represented by skeletal figures popularized in Day of the Dead practices; fantastic animals, with trees morphing into peacocks, kangaroos, and ostriches; and marine life, both real and imagined.


Tree of Life with Adam and Eve (1950s),
H. 89.5 cm, Timiteo Gonzalez, Metepec, Fowler Museum, photo by Don Cole
Tree of Life with mermaid, H. 76.3 cm, artist and date unknown, photo by Don Cole

The last includes several representations of mermaids, an ever-popular subject in Mexican art. Again, the stories have been woven together from both European and local sources. From Germany, for example, we get the Lorelei myth of a creature, half woman and half fish, whose beauty and song lure sailors to shore, causing them to wreck their ships. From southern Mexico comes the story of a mermaid goddess who gave life to fish, frogs, snakes, and other marsh animals. One whimsical work included in the exhibition features a mermaid with long curly tresses who strums a lute and wears a tall cap festooned with fish, birds, and flowers.