Francisco Moreno Capdevila
Francisco Moreno Capdevila (January 18, 1926 – May 13, 1995) was a
Life
Capdevila was born in Barcelona, Spain. As he was only thirteen years old when he and his family fled Spain after the fall of the Republicans, arriving to Mexico in 1939 as a political refugee.[1][2] Unlike other Spanish Republican artists in exile, he had not studied art before coming to Mexico. He began his career studying painting with Santos Balmori and engraving with Carlos Alvarado Lang .[1] He eventually became a Mexican citizen.[2]
He died in Mexico in 1995.[1]
Career
Capdevila spent most of his career in the graphic arts, working in workshops and print enterprises,
He began exhibiting his graphic work in 1952 in Mexico and abroad, with his first individual exhibition at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana in 1962.[1] He had an individual exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno in 1981. In 1987, the Palacio de Bellas Artes held a retrospective called Visión multiple, with examples of his paintings, engravings and tapestries.[1]
His first and most significant mural was created in 1964 for the Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico, called Destruction of the City of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.[1] It is a concave portable piece, painted in acrylics over aluminum panels, measuring three meters tall and nine meters wide. His experience as a refugee from Franco affected the composition of the work. The mural was on permanent display for thirty years, when relegated to a back patio. In the mid-1990s it was restored and sent to Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where it is now displayed at the law school.[4]
Capdevila also worked as an engraving teacher with the
His prominence, especially in the graphic arts led to membership in various prestigious organizations. From 1954 to 1974, he was a prominent member of the Sociedad Mexicana de Grabadores. In 1960, he became part of the Nuevas Generaciones de la Plástica Mexicana group and became a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana in 1961.[3] He became a member of the Academia de Artes in 1988.[2] He was also a member of the Grupo Nuevos Grabadores and the Salón Independiente.[3]
In 2012, a biography was published, researched and written by historian Fabiola Martha Villegas Torres.[3]
Artistry
Capdevila did engraving, painting, drawing, illustration and various other graphic arts.
He did not abandon politics after arriving to Mexico, documenting events such as the railroad strikes of 1958 and the student uprising in 1968 in his work, found in two publications: Represión and Luz y Tenieblas.[3]
His work also dealt with cultural issues of his time, as a member of the
Antonio Rodríguez Luna described his painting as “profound without being cryptic, clear in spite of its contempt for the obvious.”[1]
References
- ^ ISBN 968 6258 54 X.
- ^ a b c d "Academia de Artes" [Academy of Arts] (in Spanish). Mexico: CONACULTA. Retrieved July 13, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Desentraña libro genio y figura de Francisco Moreno Capdevila" [Presentation of knowledgeable and illustrative of Francisco Moreno Capdevila] (in Spanish). Mexico City: NOTIMEX. September 24, 2012.
- ^ Maria Eugenia Sevilla (April 13, 2005). "'Rescata' la UNAM un mural" [UNAM "rescues" a mural] (in Spanish). Mexico City: Reforma. p. 4.
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