Lucha Libre! Masked Mexican Wrestlers

Lucha Libre! Masked Mexican Wrestlers is a spectacular selection of photographs, films, and artifacts from Mexico City that provide a journey through the real and imaginary world of the Mexican lucha libre (free form) wrestling scene.

On view from September 15 through January 27, 2008, the images of Lucha Libre! Masked Mexican Wrestlers span more than six decades, integrating journalistic assignments, portrait photography, documentaries, and artistic projects.

With approximately 100 original prints and contemporary reproductions ranging from postcard size to photomurals, this impressively diverse exhibition includes three audiovisual projections and a film.

Created under the auspices of Fundación Televisa’s Visual Arts Division and George Eastman House, Lucha Libre! was curated by Orlando Jimenez and Alfonso Morales of Mexico City, who have both played a major role in the recent cultural reevaluation of wrestling in Mexico. Deeply rooted in Mexican pop culture, wrestling matches are much more than just a favorite sport.

These modern-day physical and symbolic spectacles recall the ancient battles of Roman gladiators and Aztec warriors, where wrestling arenas become stages for the most complex, riotous events imaginable. Confrontations between the “heavies” and “good guys” appeal to those craving basic storytelling as well as more intense psychology, both transcending the boundaries of the ring. From television to comic books, from street art to virtual animation, from newspaper articles to cinematographic fiction, most visual forms of Mexican fine arts and pop culture have paid tribute to the wrestling match mythology.