El Paso Herald-Post du lieu suivant : El Paso, Texas • 25

El Paso Herald Post SATURDAY Oct 12 1974 i THE COLORFUL WORLD OF ENTERTAINMENT Manuel Acosta One-Man Show at Museum of Art Mb 3 I A visit to Manuel Acosta's studio on Bueno Vista is much like a skull session for a Bob Hope special with one-liners ricocheting off tin plaster walls punctuated by the visceral chuckles Last week all was methodical confusion as the popular painter prepared for his first-ever one-man show at the K1 Paso Museum of Art "This is really exciting for me" Manny confessed don't know if I will be able to get my two heads inside a 10-gallon hat" llis ebullience was unbounded "This is going to be a good month One of the paintings in the show is symbolic Luna de Octubrc It has the feeling of an October night with a bright harvest moon and a chill in the THE 89 pictures are now on exhibit to the public Tuesdays through Sundajs after an invitational opening party given by the Museum Members Guild this week Most of them are for sale although many have been loaned by collectors in El Paso and from as far away as Chicago and New York City They fill up both galleries the hallways and three are in the the im pressible Acosta teased "It is great to be surrounded by all the faces that have lived all these years and now they arc all of course not It is like a reunion with old friends" THE EARLIEST PAINTING in the showr is one of his two nephews done 18 years ago Also on loan is the cover painting of C'esar ('have which Acosta was commissioned to do for Time Magazine The West Texas Museum in Lubhock has loaned the portrait of the bullfighter Ramon Tirado which he considers his outstanding painting of a toreador like to paint bullfighters" averred Acosta also done Curio Kivi-ra and Jesus Delgadillo El Estudiante" lie is best known for his portrayals of his people the Spanish speaking Americans from South El Paso the faces of children and flowers "They call me the Mexican petal pusher" Manny riposted his round face crinkled with mirth Taking himself too seriously has never been one of his problems THESE paintings as a group now might give me a sense of what I have done and what I am about" Acosta denies that his style has changed much in the years that he has established himself as a leading Southwest artist "but I think I am a better draftsman now with purer more joyful coloring" One of the particular pleasures for Acosta accruing from the current exhibit is the excitement of his neighbors "I am pleased with the good feeling and the response of the people in my neighborhood who have never been to a museum They are going to come They finally decided to go to an art exhibition Maybe because they will see themseives SOME IT IS like going to the dentist! My own relatives are going through some trauma" The mirth spills over again in layers of laughter Acosta elaborates further have felt no great necessity to go to a museum They go to church bars the morgue dance halls but symphonic music and ballet they have felt no need for Perhaps tl: will be a breakthrough for them" The painter's work currently being handled by Baker Art Galleries in Lubbork Haul Gallery in Rosvveil and Jamison Galleries in Albuquerque He has exhibited in Chihuahua Museum and the T-jarc: Museum of Art as well as once before in the company of three other artists at the El Paso Museum I- I Is! ft The largest one-man show ever mounted in the El Paso Museum of Art comes from the pa lette and brusti of Manuel Acosta Here the El Paso artist pauses in the kiosko outsrde hisstudio with the portrait of Dona Josefa of Ojinaga Mexico a distant relative This picture along with a later portrait of the same subject is one of 89 In the current museum show (Photo by Arturo Enriquez) next on tap for Manny? grinned the mischievous Mexico-born artist "President Templeton at the University of Texas at El Paso has had some discussions with me about a huge mural in one of the new Fine Arts Building rooms It sounds fascinating It would be a challenge but then any project that comes along is a challenge like this exhibit" More than October this looks like a good year for Manuel Acosta.