Legends of the “Mexican Silver Renaissance” – Matilde Poulat (1899 1960)
Art historians unanimously associate the phenomenon of the “Mexican Silver Renaissance” with the name of the American jewelry designer, collector and entrepreneur William “Guillermo” Spratling (1900-1967). Almost all Mexican jewelry designers came from his famous studio-workshop Taller de las Delicias, opened in Taxco in 1931.
It is believed that she was born in Mexico City in 1899 and was a graduate of the prestigious National Academy of Arts of San Carlos, taught, worked as a restorer, participated in the restoration of Mexican Catholic churches and ancient monuments…
Spratling persuaded Poulat to present her jewelry outside of Mexico for the first time. It happened in 1941 at the Latin American Silver Exhibition in Washington. The success was stunning. That year, no other Mexican jeweler was written about as much as Matilde Pulat. And the more American art critics criticized her jewelry, sanctimoniously reproaching Matilde for “departing from the original folk tradition,” “contrived symbolism,” and “deliberate drama,” the more people wanted to buy her jewelry.
In 1950, at the insistence of her grown-up nephew, Matilde rebuilt the house and opened a small shop in the basement, next to the workshop. So what kind of items did Matilde Pulat make and offer?
In 1960, Matilde Pulat passed away. The family business “Matl” was inherited by her nephew and protégé Ricardo Salas Pulat (1923-2006). Like his aunt, he successfully graduated from the Academy of San Carlos and was even awarded the Diego Rivera Prize in Artistic Design. Ricardo literally idolized his aunt-mentor and considered his highest artistic achievement to be perfection in mastering the art and manner of Matilda Pulat.
The jewelry created by Ricardo is sometimes truly indistinguishable from the products of Matilda herself (Ricardo Pulat can only be identified by the brand: after 1960, all jewelry from the studio began to be marked “Matl Salas”, and since 1970 “MS-12”). In the early 1970s, with the onset of the economic crisis, the Matl store in Mexico City was closed. Currently, the products of the Matl studio, which is now headed by Ricardo’s daughter, are officially represented by two jewelry stores, both located in the United States in Santa Monica (California) and Washington (D.C.).
