Jorge Wilmot, the ceramic artist said to have put Tonala on the map, died last week. He was 83 years old and reportedly suffered a heart attack in his sleep after years of declining health.
The art community’s regard for this Mexican with a German name, a Monterrey-born teacher, philosopher and artistic investigator, has done nothing but increase since his death, with accolades abounding in the media and among people he knew.
“He was a generous person,” said Wilmot’s long time friend and former student Teresa Duran, who has a ceramic workshop in Tonala. “It may have been with a cup of tea, advice, or his profound concepts about life. He read a lot. He pushed people to grow.”
Indeed, Wilmot was well known for his prolific reading in art, philosophy, history and sociology, said to have begun when he studied as a young man in Europe. Wilmot’s reading accelerated in his last years, when his age dictated an ascetic lifestyle.
Over and above his intellectual prowess, Wilmot was revered as a great innovator and promoter of Mexican pottery, stoneware and ceramics, of which Tonala is the undisputed center. Indeed, Wilmot turned Tonala into the “navel of the world” of ceramics, his friend Alberto Diaz de Cossio said in the Guadalajara daily, Milenio.
“He gave Tonala life through his presence, his designs, his rescue of traditional ceramics,” said Paco de la Peña, a well known Guadalajara artist who counts himself among Wilmot’s friends and students.
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