Dr. Atl (Gerardo Murillo)

The manifest artistic and extra-artistic interest that volcanoes had on Gerardo Murillo is well known in Mexico, and also that the artist developed an obsessive, almost scientific, vocation as a vulcanologist, writing articles for <i>Zeitschrift für Vulkanologie</i> in Berlin, and corresponding with the eminent Dr. Immanuel Friedländer. In 1943 the Paricutín erupted, and Dr. ATL spent two years studying the growth of this volcano on Mexican lands with great detail. The product of this observation and analysis was the publication of the book <i>How a volcano is born and grows</i>, a series of paintings and numerous drawings on the progress of the phenomenon. These works go far beyond the illustrative character of science; broadly formal expressive artistic merits are involved, as can be seen in this work which is part of the Blaisten Collection.