Interactive Timeline
of Ary's Artwork

Representational

Palestine
Watercolors

Morocco
Drawings

Early Abstracts

New York Folio

Drawings

Prints

Early Mexican

Gouaches

Houston-
Cuernavaca

Leyendas

L E Y E N D A S   ( 1 9 6 3  -  1 9 6 5 )

Excerpted from Reminiscences, by Frances Stillman, 1988

It was in the summer of 1963 that Ary gave up gouaches for the most part and embarked on a series of exciting canvases, which he called "Leyendas" (Legends). They had marvelous movement and each represented a world of fantasy —a pagan world, but permeated with glimpses of Egyptian, Byzantine, Coptic, Italian — every kind of culture, which had intrigued him during his lifetime. Manny Greer of the Greer Galleries in New York came down to Mexico that summer and paid a visit to Ary and his wife, Frances. He was wildly enthusiastic about the new canvases. He said he had been combing the studios of Mexican painters and here, in the studio of a veteran American painter, he found the essence of pre-Columbian Mexico that the others lacked. But Ary was adamant about not exhibiting. He had strength only to paint, he said. To be involved in exhibiting would drain too much of the precious store of energy.

Click on images to enlarge

Archaic (Biblical Legend) 1963 acrylic on canvas 16 x 21 1/2	His Royal Highness the Inca No.2 1963 acrylic on canvas 14 x 22	Indian Dance 1963 acrylic on canvas 16 x 20

Black Magic 1963 acrylic on canvas 11 x 22	Homage to Goya 1963 acrylic on canvas 16 x 20	Unnamed 1963 acrylic on canvas 16 x 22

Design in Brilliant Colors 1963 acrylic on canvas 15 1/2 x 20	Three Figures with Gray Background 1963 acrylic on canvas 16 x 20	Emblems 1963 acrylic on canvas 14 1/2 x 19 1/2

The Royal Potentate 1963 acrylic on canvas 14 1/2 x 17 1/2	Composition in Black and Red 1963 acrylic on canvas 20 x 15 1/2	Colorful Cutouts on Gray Background 1963 acrylic on canvas

Unnamed 1963 acrylic on canvas 16 x 20	Man and Woman 1963 acrylic on canvas 13 1/2 x 20	Unnamed c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 17 x 21 1/2

Figures on Brown Background c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 17 1/2 x 21 1/2	Exotic Design c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 16 x 20	In Persian Spirit c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 14 x 18

Unnamed c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 15 x 20	Unnamed c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 16 1/2 x 20	Guadalajara 1964 acrylic on canvas 14 x 20

Fantasy (Black Magic #2) c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 10 x 21	Orientale 1965 acrylic on canvas 16 x 20	Del Parque #1 1965 acrylic on canvas 14 x 21

Del Parque #2 1965 acrylic on canvas 14 x 21	Unnamed 1965 acrylic on canvas 16 x 22	Pagan Rites c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 16 x 20

Figures on Gray Background c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 16 x 20	Unnamed c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 16 x 19	Unnamed c. 1960s acrylic on canvas 16 x 20

See more Leyendas in Private Collections.