Arnold Belkin

Happy Birthday Arnold Belkin!

Mexican muralist Arnold Belkin was born on December 9, 1930, in Alberta, Canada. His parents were Jewish immigrants, his mother from England and his father from Russia, both socialists, whose ideals are apparent as influences in Belkin's later work.  The artist began his study of art in Canada, but relocated to Mexico after reading an article about Diego Rivera in Time magazine, at age 18. He enrolled in La Esmeralda, studying with painters Agustin Lazlo and Carlos Orozco Romero. In addition to mural and canvas painting, Belkin also created engravings, but he is best known for his murlas.  He became known as the "Canadian son of Mexican muralism".

Arnold Belkin's work is characterized by his dark, somber colors, using ochre, gray, sepia tones. His themes focused on historical and social messages: war, peace, injustice, death, etc. with the human figure and geometric shapes central. He created over 30 murals, primarily in Mexico, although he did some work in the US. He identified with Mexico as his home and became a naturalized citizen in 1981.

Belkin's best known mural series is located at University Autonoma Metropolitana, in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. I am including one of the series below.

Diego Rivera

Happy Birthday Diego Rivera!

Famed fresco muralist, Diego Rivera was born on December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato City. From an affluent family, Rivera studied art at the Academy of San Carlos beginning at age 10. He traveled to Europe on scholarship arranged by Teodoro A. Dehesa Mendez (governor of Veracruz), studying first in Spain and then settled in Paris. He became part of a group of artist friends during the height of Cubism, enamored with the work of Braque and Picasso and then the Post-Impressionist painting of Paul Cezanne. At the suggestion of the Mexican ambassador to France, Rivera traveled to Italy next, to learn more about the Italian Renaissance.

He returned to Mexico following the Mexican Revolution, joined the Mexican Communist Party and as a participant in the government sponsored mural program, began using his art to impart social and political messages. His style used simple figures, bold, bright colors and exhibited strong Aztec influence. In the 30's Rivera was invited to the US to paint a series of murals in San Francisco, He was honored with a retrospective exhibit of his work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City and finally was commissioned to create a series of 27 fresco panels at the Detroit Institute of Art, entitled "Detroit Industry".

Diego Rivera was married three times, but the most well known union was with Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo. They were both inspiration and irritant to one another and were divorced in 1929, but remarried in 1940. Rivera has work in Mexico, the US and Europe. He was a founding member of the Revolutionary Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors. Rivera lived to be 71, leaving behind an incredible legacy of work.

 

Maria de Jesus Nolasco Elias

Happy Birthday Maria de Jesus Nolasco Elias!

Mexican potter, Maria de Jesus Nolasco Elias was born on December 8, (tomorrow) 1944, in Ocumicho,  Michoacan. Ocumicho is known for artisans crafting colorful clay figurines. Nolasco Elias learned her technique from artist Marcelino Vicente. She perfected the art form and made it her own. Using her hands as well as molds, the pieces are first formed from native clay and then polished smooth with a stone before finally being fired. Themes of her work revolve around devils, animals, Suns, mermaids and the life of Christ. The characters are imaginative and lean toward indigenous imagery.

Her work has been exhibited here in Mexico as well as other shows around the world. In 2001, Maria de Jesus Nolasco Elias was named a "grand master" by Fomento Cultural Banamex.

Sebastian Canovas

Happy Birthday Sebastian Canovas!

Sebastian Canovas was born on December 8, in 1957, in Mexico City. He studied industrial design in Mexico City at Universidad Anihuac and went to work as a furniture designer for the family business Galerias D'Canovas. At the suggestion of customers, he turned to painting as his career. Initially he worked realistically in watercolor, painting the Mexican countryside. More recently Canovas has focused on mixed media abstract depictions of emotions and moods.

His work has been exhibited in Europe, the US, and Mexico.

Julio Galan

Happy Birthday Julio Galan!

Neo-expressionist painter, collage artist and architect, Julio Galan, was born on December 5, 1958, in Monterrey, Mexico. His work is said to represent his life experiences. Working in Mexico as well as in New York; it was in New York that famed Andy Warhol first discovered Galan, printing a couple of his works in the magazine Interview, in 1984. 

Galan exhibited in the US as well as Mexico. He won the "Premier Marco" award from the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, in 1994. Sadly, Julio Galan died of a brain hemorrhage on a plane enroute to Monterrey, in 2006.

 

Consuelo Revueltas Sanchez

Happy Birthday Consuelo Revueltas Sanchez!

Landscape painter Consuelo Revueltas Sanchez was born in 1909, in Durango. She was one of twelve children by parents Gregorio Revueltas Gutierrez and Romana Sanchez Aras. She came from an artistic family, with one brother Fermin, (see July 7 post) also an artist, another, Silvistre, a musician, while her sister, Rosaura, was a dancer and actress. Her brother Jose Revueltas was a well known writer.

Consuelo was a painter in the "naive" style. She was best known for her landscape painting. Consuelo died at the age of 81, in 1990.

La Benedicion de los Animales

Xavier Guerrero

Happy Birthday Xavier Guerrero!

Mexican muralism pioneer, Xavier Guerrero was born on December 3, 1896, in San Pedro de las Colonias, Coahuila. His father was a bricklayer by trade, also working as a decorator and painter, Guerrero learned about color mixing early on and was largely self taught. He worked as an assistant to other muralists, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, Carlos Merida, etc. Though he was considered a subordinate, he taught Rivera the method of preparing walls for fresco mural painting. Sadly much of his own mural work has disappeared.

He was a member of the muralism movement, but did not adhere to their political messages. Instead, he focused on landscape, flowers and fruit themes with humans and animals added in at times. His work was more philosophical and he felt "man and nature interact in a magical and poetic way." Guerrero's childhood experiences with helping his father decorate and paint are evident in the folk art leanings of his early work. His later canvas work was considered to be more desirable.