The Mexican artist Enrique Echevarria was born on July 14, 1923, in Mexico City to Spanish father, Marin Echevarria and Mexican mother, Florentina Vazquez. He studied art at La Esmeralda and also topography and hydrology at Escuela Superior de Ingeniera y Arquitectura. One professor noted his interdisciplinary approach stemmed from his desire to view things from many perspectives. Echevarria received a grant and studied in Spain and other European countries for several years.
After returning to Mexico, bringing with him a new perspective, Echevarria became involved in the Generacion de Ruptura, separating from the traditional figurative approach to experiment with abstraction. Although he never totally left behind figurative work, he did experiment with Cubism, Impressionism and of course Abstractionism.
He helped establish the Galeria Prisse, in 1957, in an effort to allow contemporary Mexican artists the opportunity to display and sell their work, since they were essentially barred from exhibiting in the more traditional galleries and museums. His work was part of many exhibitions and collectives, not only in Mexico, but across the world. He won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1957 and was a guest speaker at Notre Dame University in Indiana (1966). He also taught for a time at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Although his work was not well known at the time, it did become recognized after his death, resulting in a retrospective of his painting in 2003.
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