Fanny Rabel - Career

Career

Rabel had her first exhibition of her work in 1945 with twenty four oils, thirteen drawings and eight engravings at the Liga Popular Israelita with Frida Kahlo writing the presentation. In 1955, she had an individual exhibition at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana . She had a large exhibition at the museum of the Palacio de Bellas Artes to commemorate a half century of her work. Her last exhibition was in 2007 at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana . Her work can be found in the collections in over fifteen countries including those of the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress in Washington, the Royal Academy of Denmark, the National Library in Paris, the Casa de las Américas in Havana, the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.

She is considered to be the first female muralist in Mexico. She was an assistant to Diego Rivera while he worked on the frescos for the National Palace and an apprentice to David Alfaro Siqueiros. Her most important mural is Ronda en el tiempo located in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, which was created from 1964 to 1965. She also created murals at the Unidad de Lavaderos Público de Tepalcatitlán (1945), Sobrevivencia, Alfabetización in Coyoacán in 1952 Sobrevivencia de un pueblo at the Centro Deportivo Israelita (1957) Hacia la salud for the Hospital Infantil de México (1982), La familia mexicana at the Registro Público de la Propiedad (1984) (which Rabel preferred to title Abolición de la propiedad privada) and at the Imprenta Artgraf. In collaboration with other artists, she participated in the creation of the murals at the La Rosita pulque bar (disappeared) and at the Casa de la Madre Soltera.

She was a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and the Taller de Gráfica Popular, joining both in 1950. A group of her friends nominated her for the Premio Nacional de Arte but it was denied. However, her work has been honored with a number of retrospective exhibits before and after her death. In 2007, there was a retrospective of her work at the Festival de México in the historic center of Mexico City at the House of the First Print Shop in the Americas with the title of La Fanny de los Fridos. Her work was featured at an exhibition called Fanny Rabel y Mujeres del Salón de la Plástica Mexicana held at the José Vasconcelos Library . The Salón de la Plástica Mexicana had a retrospective of her work after he death called Retrospectiva in Memoriam, Fanny Rabel (1922-2008) held at the Museum of the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla .