1891-1985
Born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, Mérida spent most of his working life in Mexico. He arrived in the twenties among the muralists but broke with their narrative realism, arguing that indigenous American form could be addressed abstractly rather than illustrated.
What followed was a long project of translating Maya and Zapotec geometry into a modern pictorial language, informed by his years in Paris among Klee and Miró. He worked extensively in architectural integration, producing murals and mosaics for buildings across Mexico City. He died in Mexico City in 1985.
