Flor Minor

Happy Birthday Flor Minor!

Sculptor Flor Minor was born in 1961 in Queretaro and studied at La Esmeralda. She uses the lost wax process for her bronze sculptures. Minor is also an accomplished graphic artist, working in charcoal drawing, drypoint, etching and lithography. A recurrent theme in her graphics and sculpture is the exploration of balance. She normally uses male figures in her work and though she attempts to discover why we exist and the search for ones' self,  the figures exemplify serenity without tension.

Her art can be found in collections, both public and private, in Mexico, Cuba and Brazil. Some of her projects have been funded by various grants. Flor Minor is a recognized member of the Salon de la Plastica Mexicana.

Paulina Lavista

Happy Birthday Paulina Lavista!

Actually born on November 1, 1945, in Mexico City, Paulina Lavista was a photographer.  Her father a composer her mother a painter, Lavista grew up surrounded by art and music. After a short trial at modeling (for commercials) and then movies, she became interested in photography. Beginning with portrait work of artists and other notable figures, Lavista then ventured into photographing everyday Mexican life, artistic nudes, Mexican art scenes, etc. Her themes varied but a favored one was motion, birds in flight, ballerinas, etc. Her nude subjects were often controversial. She was largely self-taught, although she did learn processes for lab work at the Centro Universitarios de Estudios Cinematographicos.

Lilia Carrillo

Happy Birthday Lilia Carrillo!

Lilia Carrillo was born in Mexico City, on November 2, 1930.  A painter of the Generacion de Ruptura era, she decided she wanted to be a painter in her teens. While attending La Esmeralda, she fell from a scaffolding while working on a mural and injured her back. Carrillo received a scholarship to study in Paris in the 1950's which greatly influenced her subsequent work.

Although she began her career painting figuratively, after her study in Paris and exposure to the various movements of Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism, etc. she created her paintings using the automatism tenet of Surrealism. The theory claims the artist uses her subconscious to guide her hand. This lead to her own style sometimes termed "lyrical informal abstractionism".

Carrillo's work was exhibited all over the world. In 1970, she suffered a spinal aneurysm, possibly resultant of her back injury earlier in her life. She was confined to a wheelchair, hampering her ability to paint. Sadly, Carrillo died at the young age of 43, in 1974.

Leonardo Nierman

Happy Birthday Leonardo Nierman!

Born on November 1, 1932, Leonardo Nierman was a sculptor and painter from Mexico City. His parents were emigrants, his father from Lithuania and his mother from Ukraine. As a child he wanted to be a violinist, but gave that up and became a self-taught artist after first earning his business administration degree.

Nierman began with mural painting but has also created canvas paintings and sculptures and now his work is found all over the world. His art has been influenced by his love of music and he has said he feels the tonalities, rhythms, high intensity vs. resting areas are found in both painting and music. Artists Klee, Kandinsky, de Chirico, and Miro have also been influential on Nierman's work. He has been referred to as the Mexican Jackson Pollock. Nierman uses bright colors to paint abstract forms with movement and rhythm, demonstrating what has been termed "magical expressionism". His sculpture, usually in silver tones, does exhibit realistic images such as birds, angels, flames and musical instruments.

Firebird (1967)

Oliverio Martinez de Hoyos

Happy Birthday Oliverio Martinez de Hoyos

The second of sixteen siblings, contemporary Mexican sculptor Oliverio Martinez de Hoyos was born in 1901. His younger brother, Ricardo became a painter (see October 28 post). After going to the US to work in 1925-27, Oliverio discovered his affinity for sculpture. Unfortunately he also contracted tuberculosis while there, which greatly shortened his life.

His early work was primarily bronze busts but he then moved to his strength: monumental sculpture. His crowning glory was The Monument to the Revolution, completed in 1938, coincidentally the year of his death. He won the right in a competition of artists to complete the monument, which was begun in 1911, and was originally designed to support the Legislative Palace. The project was abandoned for 10 years, then re-purposed in 1921 for the International Trade Exhibition. Finally in 1934 Martinez was chosen to complete the monument to his design specifications. He addresses  the themes: Independence, Reform Laws, Agrarian Laws, and Workers' Laws, completed in four stone sculptural groups. The monument is said to wed Cubism with pre-Columbian art, creating an art deco work and introducing Contemporary sculpture to Mexico.

Maria Izquierdo

Happy Birthday Maria Izquierdo!

Mexican painter, Maria Izquierdo was born on October 30, 1902, in San Juan de Los Lagos, Jalisco. She was raised by her grandparents, devout Catholics, after her father died when she was 5 years old. At age 14 Izquierdo was married by arrangement to a man some years her senior and had three children by the time she was 17.

She began to discover art after the family moved to Mexico City and she became a self-taught professional artist, leaving her husband to pursue her career. In the late 1920's she did attend Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes and later continued her studies with Rufino Tamayo, with whom she then became romantically involved. Another mentor was Diego Rivera and he described her as "one of the best artists in the academy". Known as the first Mexican woman to have her work exhibited in the US, she also exhibited in Paris and became the cultural ambassador for Mexico.

Izquierdo's art was normally classified as Surrealist, although she herself did not identify as such. Her color use was rich and bold, the subject matter often unusual. She painted altars, still life, portraits of women, circus performers, in a more poetic, personal manner rather than the political leanings of many other artists of her "time".

Maria Izquierdo's career was cut short when she suffered a stroke in the mid-1940's and again in the 50's, dying at age 53.

Lucinda Urrusti

Happy Birthday Lucinda Urrusti!

Born in 1929, Lucinda Urrusti was a Mexican art critic known also for her Impressionistic and abstract painting as well as portrait painting. Born in Spanish Morocco, the family fled to Mexico at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War when she was 10 years old. She attended La Esmeralda on an informal basis, studying drawing with Jesus Guerrero Galvan (see June 5 post) and painting with Agustin Lazo Adalid (see February 6 post). She became associated with the Generacion de la Ruptura, a group of artists who broke away from Mexican muralism (the dominant force in the Mexican art world).

Urrusti has had many solo and collective exhibits of her work in Mexico and abroad. She has also worked as an art teacher and curator for Palacio de Bellas Artes.