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Mexico Premiere - Preserving Las Pozas

Preserving Las Pozas

Posted on September 5, 2009

By John Mitchell

Xilitla, Mexico — Las Pozas is truly one of the hidden wonders of 20th-century Mexico. Located in the lush rain forest of the isolated Huasteca Potosina region of San Luis Potosi state, this remarkable surrealistic sculpture garden was created by Edward James, an eccentric British poet, nature lover, and art patron. Between 1949 and 1984, James built 36 fantastical concrete sculptures in an 80-acre parcel of jungle near the mountain town of Xilitla.

Born in 1907 into extreme wealth, young Edward James lived a life of privilege. He was brought up on 6000-acre West Dean Estate in West Essex and attended Eton and Oxford. James later mingled with London high-society and embraced the literary and art worlds of his time. After a failed marriage to dancer Tilly Losch, James moved to Europe where he befriended Salvador Dali, Magritte and other members of the nascent surrealist movement. Knowing a good thing when he saw it, Edward James amassed a huge collection of surrealist paintings, which he later sold to finance the construction of his own artistic fantasies at Las Pozas.

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