Raúl Anguiano
Raúl Anguiano | |
---|---|
Born | José Raúl Anguiano Valadez February 26, 1915 Guadalajara, Mexico |
Died | January 13, 2006 Mexico City, Mexico | (aged 90)
Known for | painting |
Movement | Mexican muralism |
José Raúl Anguiano Valadez (February 26, 1915 – January 13, 2006) was a notable Mexican painter of the 20th century, part of the “second generation” of
Life
Raúl Anguiano was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, on February 26, 1915, at the height of the Mexican Revolution.[1][2] He was the eldest of ten children, whose father was a cobbler.[2]
He began drawing at age five using images of movie stars and other famous people as
During his studies and early career, Anguiano worked with various models such as workmen, laborers and a few notable people such as Pita Amor.[1] In 1934, he moved to Mexico City, where he met Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco and studied their work. He painted his first mural in the same year while in a school and joined the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios.[2][4][3]
During Anguiano’s long career, almost eight decades, his main studio was in Coyoacán, Mexico City but he had a second home in Huntington Beach, California.[5][6]
Anguiano died on January 13, 2006, at the Hospital Central Militar in Mexico City after becoming ill with heart problems while in Los Angeles.[5][7] He was buried at the family crypt at the Panteón Jardín.[8][9] [10]
Career
His first major show was in 1935, when he was only twenty. He was the youngest painter to be featured at an exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
In 1936, when he was only twenty one, he was commissioned to paint his first mural called La educación socialista, a seventy meter wide piece at the Carlos A. Carrillo School in Mexico City.[1][7] During this career, he painted about fifty murals mostly in Mexico and the United States but murals can also be found in Jamaica and even the Vatican, which houses his mural La Crucifixión.[2][6]
Some of his more noted murals include Rituales Mayas for the
From the time he moved to Mexico City in 1934 until close to his death, he was also an art teacher. He began by teaching in the primary schools but most of his teaching was done at the university level.[1] He taught at Escuela de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad Autónoma de México, the La Esmeralda academy and the Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México. His first teaching work in the United States was for a brief time in 1941 and he agreed to teach primary school again in the summer of 2000 at the Santa Ana Unified School District.[5][11]
Anguiano illustrated several books and about fifty catalogs of his work. He lectured throughout Mexico, the United States and Europe.[4][5] During an expedition to the Bonampak archeological site, he sketched figures on the murals there, later using them to write a book about the experience called 'Expedicion a Bonampak first published in 1959.[5]
His art career was also linked to a number of organizations that he joined or created. In 1937, he joined the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios.[1] He was one of the founders of the Taller de Gráfica Popular along with Leopoldo Méndez, Alfredo Zalcoe and Pablo O'Higgins, which produced etchings and lithographs with political themes.[7][11] He was a founder of the La Esmeralda Academy, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Arts a Bonampak and the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.[4][11][3]
By the time of his death, Anguiano's paintings were selling for over 100,000USD.
Recognitions include the José Clemente Orozco Insignia from the state of Jalisco in 1956, the Medalla de Oro del Salón Panamericano de Arte in
Artistry
Anguiano is an important artist of the 20th century, known nationally and best known internationally for his oil paintings depicting the indigenous peoples of Mexico.[2][7] In addition to oils, he produced etchings, pencil and ink drawings, lithographs, illustrations, sculpture and ceramics.[1]
He is considered to be part of the Mexican muralism movement, although younger than the three most important figures (Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros) and he was one of the last to work with Diego Rivera.[2][4] He was part of the continuance of their tradition, called the “second generation” along with Juan O'Gorman, Jorge González Camarena, José Chávez Morado, Alfredo Zalce, Jesús Guerrero Galván and Julio Castellanos. They challenged the political and status quo and experimented with muralism but kept certain traditional artistic canons.[1][6][7] He stated "My forms of expression are based on realism, but not on naturalistic realism."[3]
Most of Anguiano’s work focuses on indigenous and rural Mexico, its festivals, history traditions and religion, which for him was Mexico.[4][7] Anguiano’s mural work is mostly inspired by the Mexican Revolution and the efforts of those related to Álvaro Obregón afterwards. Oils and other works had themes from pre Hispanic ruins, especially Mayan stele, landscapes and the life and customs of the Lacandon Jungle.[4] Work such as La Espina, Lacandonas asando monos zarahuatos and Nákin de perfil, depicted indigenous as contemporary people, rather than historical. He also depicted the problems facing them such as the destruction of the environment.[12] His work is credited with helping to educate many about rural life in Mexico as well as discrimination against the indigenous.[7] He said that in his work he "sought to glimpse the soul of the Mexican people".[2] He masterpiece is considered to be La Espina, which was used for many years to illustrate public school textbooks. It depicts a Lacandon Maya woman seated and digging a spine out of her foot with a knife.[7][12] The work sold for $156,000 USD at Christie's Latin American auction in New York on 25 May 2004.[2]
Although firmly a member of the Mexican muralism movement, Anguiano experimented with a number of artistic styles over his career, with his most important influences being
Raúl Anguiano Museum
There are two museums in Mexico dedicated to Anguiano’s work in Mexico City and Guadalajara, but the latter is the more important.[8] The Raúl Anguiano Museum was inaugurated in 2003 to provide a space to store and exhibit over one hundred works the artist donated to the state before his death. The museum has a mission of researching and promoting the aesthetic values related to Anguiano’s work. It is the newest and most modern of Guadalajara’s art museums. It has three exhibition halls on two floors, a multipurpose room and a room for children called Niño Anguiano. There are also workshops, study areas, a patio area with sculptures and twelve murals by various artists in various areas of the museum.[8][13]
Museum collections
- Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Beatriz Vidal. "Raúl Anguiano: A world in perpetual movement". Graphic Witness Visual Arts and Social Commentary. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Raul Anguiano Painter and muralist". Independent. London. February 8, 2006. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 968-6258-54-X.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Biografía" [Biography] (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2012-08-11. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Myrna Oliver (January 16, 2006). "Raul Anguiano, 90; Mexican Painter, Muralist and Teacher". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Generations: Paintings by Raúl Anguiano August 13, 2010 through February 06, 2011". San Diego Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 2010-11-15. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Maestro Raúl Anguiano" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Arte México magazine. Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Dona Raul Anguiano su obra a la nacion" [Raul Anguiano donates his work to the nation]. Palabra (in Spanish). Saltillo, Mexico. January 16, 2006. p. 7.
- ^ PALAPA QUIJAS, FABIOLA (16 January 2006). "Con ovaciones despiden a Raúl Anguiano en el Panteón Jardín" [With cheers they say goodbye to Raúl Anguiano at Panteón Jardín] (in Spanish). La Jornada. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
- ^ "Descansará Raúl Anguiano en el Panteón Jardín" [Raúl Anguiano rests at Panteón Jardín]. El Universal (in Spanish). Notimex. 15 January 2006. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
- ^ a b c d "Raúl Anguiano , 1915 – 2006" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Blaisten Museum. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
- ^ a b "La espina de Raúl Anguiano retrata al indígena contemporáneo" [La espina by Raúl Anguiano depicts the contemporary indigenous] (Press release) (in Spanish). CONACULTA. February 26, 2012. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
- ^ "Museo Raúl Anguiano MURA" [Raul Anguiano Museum]. Sistema de Información Cultural (in Spanish). Mexico: CONACULTA. Retrieved June 23, 2012.