February
16, 2008 'Payment in Kind'
Programme
Gives Mexico Worthy Art
Mexico City
In 1957, painter David Alfaro Siqueiros proposed that artists in
Mexico be allowed to pay taxes with their work. Half a century
later, this idea has given rise to one of the world's most important
collections of contemporary art.
The unprecedented programme, Pago en Especie (Payment in Kind), went
into force in 1975 through a presidential decree, but it received
the support of the artists Raul Anguiano, Luis Nishizawa and Adolfo
Best Maugard who donated works to get it going.
Diego Rivera also joined the efforts, with three works including the
oil painting "Lucila y los judas".
"As a founder, Diego Rivera contributes but does not pay, because
the nation was indebted to him (for earlier donations)," said
Angeles Sobrino, deputy director of the collection control
department at the Mexican Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).
Since then, the programme has gathered 5,304 pieces, according to
the last inventory carried out in 2006. And it grows every year,
with new acquisitions selected by a specialist committee.
" 'Payment in Kind' is not about any artist handing in their work.
It is a window to represent the work and the calibre of those who
have taken part in it," Jose Ramon San Cristobal told DPA.
San Cristobal is the director general of Cultural Promotion, Public
Works and Patrimonial Assets at the SHCP, charged with the custody
and diffusion of this treasure.
Leonora Carrington, Vicente Rojo, Rodolfo Morales, Rafael Coronel,
Mathias Goeritz, Roger von Gunten and Francisco Toledo are some of
the 700 artists - natives, or foreigners with residence in Mexico -
who have settled fiscal debts with their artistic production.
Artists like Jose Luis Cuevas have made a habit of the programme,
and every year they work on one or several pieces to cover the
amount they should pay in tax.
The assets gathered in this way belong to the Mexican people, and
they decorate museums and other institutions across Mexico.
Of the total, 4,044 works are held by the SHCP, and many of these
have left the Mexican capital and are shown in embassies and
official buildings abroad.
"The idea is to diffuse (the works)," San Cristobal explained.
"Protocol spaces are important windows to help Mexican fine arts be
admired."
The most representative pieces of this collection have travelled to
fairs and museums around the world. Rufino Tamayo's La Venus
fotogenica, for example, travelled to Lille, France, the European
Capital of Culture 2004.
Until 2006, Payment in Kind would only take paintings, sculptures
and engravings. One year later, photographs were admitted, and in
the future installations, performances, literature and poetry may be
accepted, the SHCP noted.
What started as an effort by Siqueiros to help a friend with tax
debts and to make life easier for artists - "who know little about
numbers", according to the painter - is now a worthy collection of
paintings and engravings, 468 sculptures, 65 photographs and 13
tapestries.
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