José Chávez Morado

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Chávez and the second or maternal family name is Morado.
José Chávez Morado
Born(1909-01-04)4 January 1909
Guanajuato, Guanajuato
NationalityMexican
EducationChouinard Art Institute, Academy of San Carlos
Known forPainting, sculpture, printmaking
Notable work
  • El retorno de Quetzalcoatl
  • La conquista de la energía
  • El mundo azteca, La nacionalidad, El mundo maya, Mapas de transportes
MovementMexican muralism, Escuela Mexicana de Pintura
AwardsPremio Nacional de Artes
1974
Mural The Conquer of Energy by José Chávez Morado in UNAM, Mexico City.

José Chávez Morado (4 January 1909 – 1 December 2002) was a

Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City as well as frescos at the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, which took twelve years to paint. From the 1940s on, he also worked as a cultural promoter, establishing a number of cultural institutions especially in his home state of Guanajuato including the Museo de Arte Olga Costa - José Chávez Morado, named after himself and his wife, artist Olga Costa
.

Life

Chávez Morado was born on 4 January 1909 in Silao, Guanajuato, shortly before the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution.[1][2] His father was a merchant, José Ignacio Chávez Montes de Oca; his mother was Luz Morado Cabrera. He came from a modest family; however, his grandfather was in possession of a private library of over 5,000 volumes which had been collected by his grandparents and great grandparents. The illustrations in those books provided the child with his first exposure to art; when he was small, he spent time copying them, especially illustrations from La Ilustración Española.[2][3]

His mother died when he was a teenager, and at age 16, he began to work at the Silao electrical company, Compañia de Luz. He lost this job when he drew a

Chouinard School of Arts. At this time he met José Clemente Orozco who was painting the mural "Prometeo" at Pomona College.[1]

In 1930, he returned to Silao. His father gave him a store to run. At the counter, he would draw images of the customers and other typical people, which he sold when the store closed and he moved to Mexico City.

Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas, associating with the more politically active artists on the left.)[2] He took engraving classes with Francisco de León, painting with Bulmaro Guzmán, and lithography with Emilio Amero. At the Centro Popular de Pintura "Saturnino Herrán" he met Leopoldo Méndez, whose posters he had taken from the streets to decorate his room.[3]

He also met Olga Costa, who was born in Leipzig, Germany, the daughter of Russian émigré musician Jacob Kostakowsky.[2][4] They married in 1935.[3]

During his art career, Chávez Morado was politically active as a member of the Mexican Communist Party and with a number of communist and socialist artists’ groups.[3][5]

In 1949, he studied abroad in Europe and Cuba.[3]

In his later life, he and his wife resided for a time in San Miguel de Allende, then moved permanently to the

city of Guanajuato in 1966. They became avid collectors of Mexican handcrafts and folk art, archeological pieces, books and plants. They also sponsored numerous cultural events until his death.[2][3] In 1975 they decided to donate their collection of pre-Hispanic art to the Museo Regional de la Alhóndga de Granaditas and their collection of colonial and folk art to the Museo del Pueblo in Guanajuato.[1]

Chávez Morado died on 1 December 2002 at the age of 93 of respiratory failure. His funeral was at the Museo del Pueblo.[6][7] At the time of his death, he was considered to be the "last of the Mexican muralists."[2][7][8]

Career

Chávez Morado was a painter, engraver, muralist and cultural promoter during his career. He also worked to support educational institutions in the state of Guanajuato.[1]

He established his art career in the 1930s, starting by teaching drawing classes in primary and secondary schools in 1933.

Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) in 1935, and later gave classes in drawing at the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura of the SEP in the 1940s. He also was a professor of lithography at the Escuela de Artes del Libro.[3] His students included Felipe Ehrenberg, Luis Nishizawa and Greta Dale .[5] He also did illustration work early in his career such as six linoleum engravings for the Vida nocturna de la Ciudad de México book by Ediciones de Arte Mexicano.[3]

His main creations as an artist were murals. His first public work was La lucha antiimperialista! at the Teachers’ College in

Museo Nacional de Antropología.[1]

Chávez Morado’s cultural promotions began in the 1940s. He founded and directed the Espiral Gallery and was a founding member of the

Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (donating his personal collection of art books) and the Museo de Arte Olga Costa - José Chávez Morado.[2][5] The last is located at a farm which was part of a larger 17th century hacienda in a house where the couple had previously lived. Inaugurated in 1993, the museum´s ground floor contains the permanent collections which includes furniture, ceramics, glass, plaster of paris, altarpieces and masks. It includes an important collection of over 500 pre Hispanic pieces, and over seventy pieces by Chávez Morado and Olga Costa.[10]

During his career, Chávez Morado was involved in leftist politics, which influenced his art. In the 1930s, he joined the

Camisas Doradas (Golden Shirts).[3]

Later work included the reliefs on the column of the "umbrella" structure in the center of the Museo Nacional de Antropología in 1964, a monument to

Colima highway in the 1970s, and the copper grilling on the façade of the new Legislative Palace in Mexico City.[1][2]

His artistic legacy consists of over 2,000 works, including murals, other monumental works, etchings and paintings.

Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, Museo del Pueblo, the Olga Costa Chávez Morado Museum, Museo de los hermanos Tomás y José Chávez Morado and in private collections around the world.[2][6]

He received his first recognition for his work in 1945 when he won first prize at a graphics competition sponsored by the Mexico City government for the 25th anniversary of the

Cadiz in 2012 on the 10th anniversary of his death.[8]

Artistry

Chávez Morado created engravings, illustrations, cartoon drawings, sculpture, murals, canvas painting, frescos, bronze, glass, and was one of the first Mexican artists to work with Italian mosaic on monumental works.[2][6] Although he had some training in California and Mexico, he is considered to be mostly self-taught.[7][8] He was interested in experimenting with new techniques and materials for murals. His work ranged from traditional frescos to those made with vinyl, mosaics, stone, bronze and terracotta.[2]

His work was always figurative in the style of Mexican muralism also known as the Escuela Mexicana de Pintura.[2][6] He is grouped with contemporaries such as Juan O'Gorman, Raúl Anguiano and Alfredo Zalce as the generation of the school to follow Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros .[7] Like the others, Chávez Morado promoted the social and political principles of the Mexican Revolution. He believed that art should be esthetic and political and was both politically active as well as an artist. His work emphasized faith in the masses, the exaltation of the struggle and heroes of the Mexican Revolution, popular culture and the railroad.[2] His painting tended to emphasize the human form, with depictions of rural areas in Mexico, customs, dances and folk religion. By the mid 20th century, his politics and art became militant and communist, as can best be seen in his engravings and the work he did with the Taller de Gráfica Popular.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "José Chávez Morado, el último muralista, es recordado en ocasión de su 103 aniversario de su nacimiento" [José Chávez Morado, the last muralist, is remembered on the 103rd anniversary of his birth] (Press release) (in Spanish). CONACULTA. 3 January 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w "José Chávez Morado, uno de los más grandes artistas de la plástica mexicana del siglo XX" [José Chávez Morado, one of the greatest fine artists of the 20th century] (Press release) (in Spanish). CONACULTA. 3 January 2011. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Raquel Tibol (27 July 2012). "A 10 años de su muerte José Chávez Morado, dibujante" [Ten years after his death, José Chávez Morado, artist]. Proceso (in Spanish). Mexico City. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  4. ^ Mexico Through the Russian Gaze: Olga Costa in Bridgewater State University Bridgewater Review
  5. ^ a b c d e Juan Manuel Garcia (22 April 2001). "Jose Chavez Morado: 'Ya no hay situacion politica para hacer murales'" [José Chávez Morado:"The political situation no longer encourages the making of murals]. Reforma (in Spanish). Mexico City. p. 5.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Martin Diego (1 December 2002). "Falleció el muralista José Chávez Morado" [Muralist José Chávez Morado dies]. La Jornada (in Spanish). Mexico City. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  7. ^ a b c d e "José Chávez Morado, el último de los muralistas mexicanos" [José Chávez Morado, last of the Mexican muralists]. El País (in Spanish). Madrid. 5 December 2002. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  8. ^ a b c "Muralista José Chávez Morado lleva a Cádiz "Una mirada de México"" [Muralist José Chávez Morado brought to Cadiz "A glance at Mexico"]. Milenio (in Spanish). Mexico City. 13 February 2012. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  9. ^ a b "Los Murales de Chávez Morado, Obras que Cambien con el Paso del Tiempo y las Modificaciones de CU" [The murals of Chavez Morado, works which are modified by the passage of time and the modifications of CU] (Press release) (in Spanish). Boletín UNAM-DGCS-086 Ciudad Universitaria. 10 February 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  10. ^ "Museo de Arte Olga Costa - José Chávez Morado" [Olga Costa-José Chávez Morado Art Museum]. Sistema de Información Cultural (in Spanish). Mexico: Instituto Estatal de la Cultura de Guanajuato. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=José_Chávez_Morado&oldid=1196727344"