The International voyage of Max Jiménez (1900-1947).

Mestizaje, sycretism, and itinerancy at the genesiac crossroads of Costa Rican avant-garde

Abstract

This article offers an unprecedented and compartmentalized assessment of the international journey of Max Jiménez Huete (1900-1947), a seminal figure in the genesis and development of Costa Rican (and Central American) avant-garde during the first four decades of the 20th century. Considering that Jimenez has been unjustifiably marginalized from the canonical history of modern/avant-garde art in Latin America, the approach followed here attempts to clarify a critical chronology of his itinerancy, as a methodology of analysis which could make possible the systematization of the study of his work and, consequently, the establishment of a rigorous documentary base binding between his aesthetic project (in stylistic, formal and literary terms) and the European, North American and Latin American historical avant-garde. Thus, the study focuses on a biographical outline of Jiménez's transcontinental voyage, assessing with particular scrutiny three moments of radical importance in his artistic progression, namely: a) The formative or Parisian period (192-1925); b) His editorial/literary contact with Spanish culture during the last two years of the Restoration regime and the beginning of the Second Spanish Republic (1929-1931/1933); and c) The weighing of his period of maturity as a catalyst/assimilator of avant-garde concerns in Cuba (1935-1945).