Octavio Medellin: Maya Toltec Temples and Carvings, 1938

"I went to Mexico to see art. Actually, the art was the people. To see the people. To learn about the people. Because I have a spirit of their universe. People to me are all the same. It makes no difference what color they are...Sculpture, I do it the same way. I don't care to do a particular race or anything, but I do a figure.. " - Octavio Medellin

In 1938, Octavio Medellin spent six months studying the Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá and Uxmal, located on the Yucatán in Mexico, and documented his travels with 181 black and white photographs that he compiled into a scrapbook entitled Maya – Toltec, Temples and Carvings, 1938.  The following images are selections from this scrapbook. [note: the camera used by Medellin was heavily taped to prevent a light leak.] Medellin and his wife, Consuelo, and their two young children, Patsy and Sergio, traveled from New Orleans to Progreso, Yucatán, and toured other towns and historical sites, including Mérida and Izamal, with fellow American artist and sculptor David Slivka and his wife, Kayla, before arriving at Chichén Itzá.

Mrs. Marrufo [first name unknown] and her daughter, Ophelia Marrufo with Conseulo Medellin. Mrs. Marrufo’s father was Edward Herbert Thompson, who was an archaeologist and U.S. Consul in the Yucatán in 1885.  In 1894, with the assistance of a Chicago patron, Mr. Allison V. Armour, Thompson purchased the land that included Chichén Itzá and the old Hacienda Chichén.  Thompson rebuilt the hacienda that would later become the compound for the Carnegie Institution research center established by Dr. Morley.  Thompson is known for dredging the Cenote Sagrado, a natural sink hole at Chichén Itzá which the Mayans considered to be a sacred well, from 1904 to 1910.  Mayan artifacts were found including items made of gold, copper, and jade.  

This color block print of an image of a hummingbird [with printing blocks] by Octavio Medellin is based from the bas-relief carvings in the Lower Temple of the Temple of the Jaguar at Chichén Itzá. Image: Octavio Medellin, Untitled, Linocut,1975

In 1947, Octavio Medellin’s drawings were developed into the portfolio XTOL – Dance of the Ancient Mayan People, published by the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The images were taken from the first register of the bas-relief carvings in the Lower Temple of the Jaguars at Chichén Itzá. The portfolio consists of ten two-color prints; Medellin drew and cut the blocks for printing.  Dallas artist Dan Wingren pulled the one five-color silkscreen print. One hundred copies were printed; each portfolio is signed and numbered by Octavio Medellin. Jerry Bywaters, director of the museum, wrote the text for the prints, entitled “Murals from the Temple of the Tigers [Jaguars].”  Salvador Toscano, head of the Department of Fine Arts for Public Education in Mexico, provided an additional essay entitled “A Note on the Murals by Salvador Toscano.” 

Medellin dedicated the portfolio to San Antonio art patron Lucy Maverick, who had encouraged the young artist to return to his native Mexico to study the Mayan ruins. Maverick had traveled in Mexico in the 1920s and became enamored with Mexican culture, participating in early archeological excavations.  Medellin met Lucy Maverick in San Antonio at the La Villita Art Gallery that he and several other artists opened in the early 1930s.