Chapter 4 - María Félix as Iconic Inspiration, Benefactor, Co-Creator, and Agent

Summary

Félix Made Clear assertions about her style and taste. She was certain about her agency in her acquisitions as someone who had a large and carefully curated collection. She commissioned jewellery by luxury brands and works of art by a variety of artists. With customary lack of modesty, in her biography Félix declares, ‘Hay en mí una especie de imán, no sólo para reconocer el talento, sino para atraerlo. Quizá por eso me han honrado con su amistad muchas grandes figuras del arte universal, tanto en mi país como en el extranjero’ [I am like a magnet for talent, not just recognising it, but attracting it too. That might be why so many great figures of universal art have honoured me with their friendships]. She goes on to assert that her applied knowledge of art was acquired through having visited many art galleries and museums in the Americas and Europe. Thus, she evidences her cultural capital and demonstrates the learning required to select thoughtfully as well as the ability to form her own opinions independent of rigid ideas of taste. This chapter explores how Félix expressed her taste through the original works and objects she surrounded and adorned herself with over the course of her life. Her taste and the judgements associated with her and other ostentatious stars like her provide an opportunity to consider women's agency in the rarefied world of luxury goods as well as the contemporary art scene in which she was involved through friendships and as a patron.

Félix worked in an industry that privileged narrow ideas of gender. In her book exploring femininity and what it means to look and be looked at as a star, Jackie Stacey states that, ‘Hollywood cinema has been a key source of idealised images of femininity in this culture. The cinema combines the exchange of looks with the display of commodities, and as such, has been of interest to feminists challenging conventional definitions of femininity’. Similar comments could be made in the Mexican and European contexts in which Félix worked. A star becomes commodified in this look, but she can also have agency in this act of being looked at and in how she looks, as Félix demonstrated.