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Peter Rodriguez
Peter Rodriguez
Peter Rodriguez was raised in both Stockton and Jackson, California, where he first developed an interest in art. In 1975, he founded the Mexican Museum as an institution designed to collect, preserve, interpret and present the artistic expression of the Mexican people, regardless of their birth-nation. Even in Mexico, there wasn't a museum that showed all five components of Pre-Conquest, Colonial, Popular, Mexican and Chicano Contemporary Art.
When he first envisioned the Museum, he saw it as both a space in which to hold and present the culture of the Mexican people, and as a vehicle to present this work from the informed perspective of the people themselves.
During the Museum's first ten years of operation, he devoted his full energy to opening and operating the Museum. As Director and Curator, he had little time to do his own painting. Peter continued to travel to Mexico however, to seek artists whose work could be exhibited at this newly-created institution.
As the Museum expanded, it began to attract the attention of a broad scope of individuals—including art collectors—and thus began to form a permanent collection. As the collection grew, so did the number and scope of exhibitions presented by the Museum to the public.
The Mexican Museum, which was first conceptualized during a trip Peter made to Mexico in 1956, had found a forum and a public.
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