MCALLEN - The International Museum of Art & Science is pleased to announce a gift of 113 objects of Mexican folk art from Carolyn Warmbold, a long-time resident of San Antonio, who now lives in Florida.

Warmbold first donated to IMAS in 1990 after the death of her husband Ted. Ted would travel to Mexico and Central America purchasing folk art directly from artists. He also helped establish the Austin Friends of Folk Art, after being president of the San Antonio Friends of Folk Art, a well-established organization that serves as a fund-raising arm of the San Antonio Museum of Art.

In 1990 the majority of his collection was divided between the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angles, and IMAS. Of the 411 pieces of folk art given to IMAS were Mexican masks, textiles, costume pieces, sculpture, ceramics, and figurines.

In late 2016, Carolyn Warmbold proposed a second gift to IMAS as she was prepared for retirement. The collection features major Mexican folk artists such as the Oaxcan ceramicists in the Aguilar family and the wood carver Manuel Jimenez along with papier-mache works by David Linares of Mexico City. The vibrant papier-mache sculpture depicted below (in Spanish called an alebrije) was made by the grandson of the most famous of the alebrije artists, Pedro Linares. This baby chameleon was purchased by Ted Warmbold from Felipe Linares in 1987 and Ted believed that he was the subject of the work.

The collection most recently donated includes textiles, ceramics, figurines, sculptures, masks and some religious objects. The IMAS folk art collection, now reaching over 1,000 objects, has from it's founding has been one of the museum's strongest assets and continues to grow which are photographed and assigned a permanent location in the vault.

For more information please call: (956) 681-2800