Moscoso's Mondragón

Moscoso's Carmen Mondragón poster | Rites of Spring 1967 / Neon Rose series | Carmen Mondragón postcards

Victor Moscoso, The Miller Blues Band, poster, 10 January 1967.

The poster

One of the most iconic psychedelic rock music posters coming out of San Francisco during the Summer of Love is Victor Moscoso's The Miller Blues Band, printed and posted to promote a gig at Marty Balin's Matrix club, San Francisco, on 10 January 1967. It was #2 in his Neon Rose series, which appeared between December 1966 and the end of 1969, though many have subsequently been reprinted. The original poster was printed by Cal Litho, San Francisco, with input from the artist. A copy of his original mockup is illustrated at right. It reveals the precise details of the original photograph upon which the female image was based (Reynolds 2015). 

This spectacular, and beautiful, offset lithograph poster was printed in contrasting pink and light blue with orange for the figure and border area, though some variants are known, as is a second printing which is not dated. Like all of Moscoso's posters from the period, the poster aimed to generate an optical occlusion / illusion, especially when viewed in a blue light / strobe light environment, or whilst the viewer was under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD. The resultant vibrating, visually fluid image would, in fact, support, and enhance, the psychedelic experience whilst an individual was taking a Trip, either alone or at a music venue such as the Matrix, Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium, or the Avalon Ballroom. 

A poster variant is known with the red replaced by a pink, and as a result has a decidedly muted, less vibratory, almost ghost-like appearance. The juxtaposition of pink against blue was common in psychedelic posters during this period.

Victor Moscoso, The Miller Blues Band, poster, 10 January 1967.

It is interesting to note that the example of the poster illustrated above is overprinted with the words 'Minors Welcome'. This is because in the United States, and many other countries, any person under the age of 18, or sometimes 21, was often termed a minor in regard to their legal status. This could severely limit those able to attend music venues such as the Matrix if it was believed, or deemed by the authorities, they were not eligible. In fact, there was no such restriction at the time to most such venues, though there was, and remains in the US, a 21 years age restriction on the consumption of alcohol and other prohibited substances. Of course the use of recreational drugs was an area of rebellion by youth during the Sixties, as it had been during previous decades, but to a lesser degree. It brought many of them into conflict with authorities. 

 

Who was that woman?

 

Reflecting the so-called 'sexual revolution' of the time, and the liberation in thought and action being experimented with, and practiced by, young people in Western societies such as the United States (e.g. San Francisco), United Kingdom (e.g. London), Europe (e.g. Paris), South America and Australasia, Victor Moscoso used a photograph of a naked woman as the basis for his poster, as did other poster artists of the day such as the Australian Martin Sharp and Americans Wes Wilson and David Byrd. The actual physical detail of the woman within the Moscoso poster as printed is masked by the use of orange and pink inks, however the outline is clear. Most references to the poster cite the subject as American actress Theda Bara, noted for her semi-naked appearances in silent films such as Cleopatra (1917). 

 

Theda Bara, Cleopatra, film still, 1917

 

In fact, the woman in the poster is not Theda Bara, though the pose is similar to one she was well known for from films and publicity material such as movie posters. Bara's appearance was exotic and highly sexual - black hair, black eye makeup and large amounts of exposed pale skin. The poster for the 1918 short film Meeting Theda Bara (illustrated below) shows the actress with her typical, vampish pose of hands under her chin, leaning forward to speak to the little man in the tuxedo who says to her, 'Oh! You vampire.'

 

Mutt & Jeff in Meeting Theda Bara, short film poster, 1918

 

The vampire reference therein is to her role as a seducing vixen, or 'vampire woman', in the 1915 film A Fool There Was. This ushered in the use of the term Vamp which went on to gain prominence during the late 1910s and so-called Roarin' Twenties of the following decade in America. The hands in the Moscoso poster are similarly posed to those in the Mutt and Jeff, though somewhat spread apart. Why? Because, the poster image used by the San Franciscan is, in fact, not of Theda Bara, but actually a reproduction of a French postcard issued circa 1918. The original image is reproduced below.

 

Carmen Mondragón, PC Paris 1758, postcard, circa 1918.

Carmen Mondragón

 

This photograph, of an unnamed woman scantily clad in faux ancient Egyptian headpiece and body regalia, is labelled 'PC / Paris / 1758' and is an original, sepia / black and white postcard. Thousands of such postcards were produced during the 1910s and 1920s, being especially popular with soldiers fighting the war in Europe between 1914-18. The woman in question is, according to The Julia Secession website, the bohemian artist, Surrealist poet, art teacher, nude model and muse Maria del Carmen Mondragón Valseca (1893-1978), later known as Nahui Olin, though more commonly simply referred to as Carmen Mondragón. 

 

Mondragón was born in Mexico in 1893 to a wealthy family and moved to Spain just prior to World War I. A bohemian nature led her to Paris during the conflict, where she became a model for artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Jean Cocteau. During this period she also worked as a nude photograph model, giving rise to the above postcard. It was produced by the long-standing Paris firm of Papeteries de Levallois-Clichy (aka P.C. Paris). A second image from that session is known, with Mondragón looking to the right, rather than the left, and in the style of a Theda Bara Cleopatra publicity shot. Mondragón was aged around 24-25 when the two studio photographs were taken.

Carmen Mondragón, circa 1918.

 

This latter image is most likely a cropped version of a second P.C. Paris postcard. It is reproduced in an article on photographer Edward Weston's work with Mondragón in 1924, with the author therein making the connection between the French and later American photographs. Two other postcards / photographs from the period have been identified by the present author, and in both Mondragón is in costume. One is an early image of a smiling, plumpish Mondragón dressed as a gypsy, with head scarf, necklace and transparent shawl wrapped around her lower half. This is also a PC Paris postcard, #1729.

 

Carmen Mondragón, circa 1918.

In later images the youthful smile is replaced by a thinner visage and look of maturing indifference. In fact, Mondragón had a cameleon-like ability to change the image she presented to the world at large. We see her, for example, sporting black curls and then short and straight hair, as in a Louise Brooks bob cut, or even near bald; her distinctive large green eyes - not seen, obviously, in black and white prints - can be surrounded in black eye liner a la Theda Bara, or untouched; her face, in early shots, is round, whilst later photographs present a thinner, aquiline visage, with pursed lips unexagerated by the lipstick and related makeup of early portraits. In fact, the more one looks at images of Mondragón / Olin over time, the more one sees changes. This is to be expected, of course, for a model and artist aware of her appearance and how she could present herself in a variety of persona. For example, in a photograph taken during the mid' 1920s after she left Europe and returned to the Americas, she is a bronze-skinned Aztec goddess, wearing an elaborate metallic, semi-circular head ornament and a shimmering, translucent top exposing her breasts and midriff as she sits Buddha-like, crossed legged, eyes down and meditative.

Nahui Olin, Aztec goddess, photograph, 1920s.

The pale skinned young woman seen in the Paris studio shots is replaced by the decidedly older, dark skinned / tanned Mondragón. By this time she was going by the name Nahui Olin, perhaps to disassociate with the family name which was well known in Mexico and carried with it certain baggage. The alias had been given her by a lover, the artist Gerald Murillo Cornado (1875-1964), also known as Dr. Atl. The words Nahui Olin referred to "four movements", or earthquakes, and the broader subjects of Aztec renewal and the evolution of the cosmos. 

 

Mondragón continued to model following her return to Mexico in 1921, working for artists such as Diego Rivera, husband of the famous Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Edward Weston was one of many photographers - male and female - who photographed her naked. However, during the 1920s and 1930s she began to focus on a career as an artist, writer and activist, before eventually retiring from public life in the 1940s. She would die alone in 1978, surrounded by her cats, largely forgotten. The latter, however, was to change with the dawning of a new millennia.

 

Throughout her life Mondragón was known for an extreme, almost brutal, eroticism and independent spirit. At one point she had a stall in Mexico City where she sold her artworks, including copies of some of the many nude photographs of her taken over time. She had numerous lovers but only married once, and that was for a brief period between 1913-21. Carmen Mondragón was eventually to achieve posthumous fame in her home country and is now discussed alongside famous Mexican artists such Frida Kahlo, though is less well known internationally. Her art was in the style referred to as naïve, though she did experiment with Primitivism. Her output comprises paintings, drawings and prints, both portraits and animated landscapes, along with the photographs taken of her and of which she was an active participant in their creation. Notable images grace the covers of some of her published literary works, comprising what appears to be simple linocut prints utilising a limited, though attractive, colour palette.

Nahui Olin / Carmen Mondragón, Optica Cerebrial - Poemas Dinamicos, cover for her 1922 book of Surrealist poetry

Numerous articles, books and online discussions are available on Mondragón, usually under the name Nahui Olin, with the vast majority coming out of Mexico and written in Spanish. In 2018 a major retrospective of her art was held at the National Museum of Art in Mexico City. Up until recently, she has been little known outside of her homeland and international art circles, this being one of the reasons the Moscoso poster has usually been identified as featuring Theda Bara, rather than Carmen Mondragón, the wayward daughter of the famous Mexican general and inventor Manuel Mondragón.

 

It would be interesting to know if during 1967 the then 74 year old Mondragón was made aware of the fact that she had been immortalised earlier that year in a piece of rock music, countercultural ephemera; or even if the artist Victor Moscoso knew the true identity of the woman featured in his poster. The answer to both is probably no. This blog seeks to fix that omission through highlighting the connection between photograph and artist. 

 

Videos

 

There is a plethora of videos on Nahui Olin / Carmen Mondragón on streaming platforms such as YouTube, usually produced in Mexico and presented in her native Spanish language, though some also have English subtitles. They vary in length from a couple of minutes through to full 90+ minute documentaries on aspects of her life, with a common focus on her art. A select few are linked below.

 

* 20 March 2013, Carmen Mondragon es Nahui Ollin, Julio Ferrá CalzadaJulio, duration: 2.57 minutes. Language: Spanish. 

 

* 10 July 2014, Nahui Olin. Una mujer de los tiempos modernos. eduquibar, duration: 31.33 minutes. Language: Spanish. 

 

* 22 June 2016, Carmen Mondragón conocida como Nahui Ollin El Refugio de los Conspiradores, Punchlines, duration: 26.06 minutes. Language: Spanish. 

 

* 2 June 2018 - interview with Adriana Malvido, author of Nahui Olin, duration: 15.48 minutes. Language: Spanish.

* 28 August 2018, Nahui Olin: El misterio detrás de los ojos verdes, NoTimexTV, duration: 3.39 minutes. Language: Spanish. 

 

* 13 December 2018, Nahui Olin - Libertad y Erotismo, Plexo Cultural, duration: 5.27 minutes. Language: Spanish.

 

* 28 June 2019, Carmen Mondragón / Nahui Olin, BioPic Channel, duration: 13.50 minutes.

 

* 15 January 2021, Nahui Ollin, Sol de Movimiento / Nahui Ollin, Sun of Movement, Cinema Planeta, duration: 92 minutes. Language: Spanish. English subtitles.

 

 

* 24 June 2021 - documentary on Carmen Mondragón / Nahui Olin, Cultura Con Polakas, duration: 7.24 minutes. Language: Spanish.

 

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References

Bonilla, Juan, Totalidad sexual del cosmos, Seix Barral, Spain, 2019. [Spanish. Biography.]

Cacucci, Pino, Nahui, Terza edicione, 2019. [Italian. Biographical novel.]

Carmen Mondragón also known as Nahui Olin, The Great Cat - The Cat in History, Art and Literature, [blog], 2021. 

Cassin, Erin, The fiery spirit of Mexico's Carmen Mondragón, MexConnect, [webpage], 2005.

Frid, Sandra, La mujer que nacio tres veces: La novela de Nahui Olin, Editorial Planeta Mexicana, 2016. [Spanish. Novelisation of her life in Paris.]

Malvido, Adriana, Nahui Olin, Circe Editorial Oceano de Mexico, 2002 / 2019. [Spanish / English]

Matos, Valeria, Nahui Olin - La loca perfecta, Lumen, 2020. [Spanish]

Meade, Julie, A Mexican artist and muse reclaims her legacy, Hyperallergic, [blog], 20 August 2018.

Nahui Olin - La mirada infinita [exhibition], Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, 15 June - 9 September 2018. [Spanish. Exhibition catalogue.]

Olin, Nahui, Optica Cerebrial - Poemas Dinamicos, 1922. [Spanish. Poems.]

-----, Câlinement je suis dedans, Guillot, Paris, 1923.

-----, Nahui Olin, Mexico, 1927.

-----, Nahui Olin Sin Principio ni fin Vida, Obra, y Varia Invencion, UNAL, 2019. [Spanish. Compendium of her five published books.]

Peredo, José Manuel Armenta, Nahui Olin: La Muse Mexicain, Paris, 2020. [French. Biography.]

Piñón, Jorge Vázquez, Carmen Mondragón Valseca. Nahui Olin: Estudio biográfico (Arte y pasión en México post revolucionario), 2021, 238p. [Spanish. Biography.] 

Reynolds, Cory, Victor Moscoso: Psychedelic Drawings reviewed in NY Times, artbook [blog], 20 March 2015. Reproduction of original New York Times review by Ken Johnson of the exhibition at the Andrew Edlin Gallery.

Weston, Edward, Nahui Olin, in Historic Heads, [photographic series], 1923.

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Moscoso's Carmen Mondragón poster | Rites of Spring 1967 / Neon Rose series | Carmen Mondragón postcards

Last updated: 14 June 2023

Michael Organ