Tres Gracias; Miloslav Chlupac

The Tres Gracias, the Three Graces, are a major sculpture along the Ruta de la Amistad, in the south of Mexico City. The Friendship Route was part of the Cultural Olympiad intended to welcome visitors to the 1968 Olympic Games.

• Miloslav Chlupac (1920-2007) was born in Benesov, in then-Czechoslovakia. He studied stone sculpting, and later attended the Prague School of Decorative Arts. He lived and worked in Prague and participated in numerous sculpture symposiums in Europe and other countries. His work, mostly in stone, continues to appear in world art auctions.
• The Three Graces are a theme developed especially in post-Classical Art. They derive from both Greek and later Roman mythologies, where they’re not usually limited to three. Roman mythology gave them the name Gratiae, but they often still considered the daughters of Zeus and Oceanid Eurynome. They’re especially remembered in our time after paintings by Rafael (1500) and Peter Paul Rubens (1620–1623).

The work completed for station #3 of the sculptural route was made of reinforced concrete and stands 12.5 meters high. Two of the figures were painted pink, and a third is lilac. The work was essentially abandoned until an initial restoration in 2003. In 2011 it was repainted, restored and moved from the original location at Periférico and Fuentes de Pedregal (about 3.8 kms west).