Nicolás Moreno was a
Mexican
landscape painter, considered to be one of the best of this genre of
the 20th century, as well as heir to the Mexican tradition of
José María Velasco and
Dr. Atl died he was 88. Although he was born in
Mexico City in 1923, he had early contact with nature, traveling with his grandfather and living briefly in
Celaya,
Guanajuato. He studied art at the country’s
Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas
but was temporarily discouraged when he was told that landscape
painting was a “minor genre.” His work almost completely focuses on the
varied landscapes of Mexico, mostly to document it, including
environmental degradation. His landscape work includes that which
appeared in over 100 individual exhibitions in Mexico and abroad as well
as a number of important murals including those at the
Museo Nacional de Antropología.
Life
Part of an exhibit of Moreno´s life's work at the Salon de la Plástica Mexicana
Nicolás Moreno was born in the Santa Julia neighborhood of Mexico City on December 28, 1923.
[1][2]
Despite living in large capital city, he had contact with nature at a
very early age traveling with his paternal grandfather who worked as a
mule driver. This allowed him to see much of the countryside that
surrounded Mexico City at the time.
[3][4]
He has further experience with the countryside when his family moved to
Celaya, Guanajuato when he was ten. However, he spent only a year there
before returning to Mexico City because of political instability.
[3]
His family was poor so he had to work but he took night classes in drawing at
La Esmeralda.
[1][3]
His talent won him a cash award which allowed him to enter the Escuela
Nacional de Artes Plásticas (ENAP) studying here from 1941 to 1945.
[5] He spent the next five years studying and traveling to various parts of Mexico to paint.
[3]
He first professor in ENAP was Benjamin Cora, who like many at the
time, considered landscape painting a minor genre which temporarily
discouraged the painter.
[2]
One of his later professors, Luis Sahuagún Cortés taught him how to
paint oils with a spatula. He also had contact with other contemporary
artists such as
José Chávez Morado and
Raúl Anguiano.
[2]
He died February 4, 2012.
[1]
Career
He was a painter, sketch artist, engraver and muralist and considered
to be one of the best landscape artists of the 20th century.
[1]
His works have included depictions of the immense ravines of the
Sierra Tarahumara, the
Mezquital Valley, and the remains of
Lake Xochimilco. He had over one hundred individual exhibitions of his work,
[6]
with individual and collective expositions of his work in the United
States, Peru, Spain, France, Germany, England, Russia, China and Japan.
[1] Many of these exhibitions were supported by the
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and resulted in his pieces as part of a number of important art collections in Europe.
[7] He was one of the founding members of the
Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, along with Raúl Aguiano, Dr. Atl,
Angelina Beloff,
Federico Cantú,
Dolores Cueto and
Germán Cueto.
[7]
His mural work includes “Los indigenas en la historia” at the
Ezequiel A. Chávez School, “Homenaje al Maestro Rural” at the Centro
Cultural del México Contemporáneo,
[4] and a pair of murals called “El valle de México” was done by Moreno and his son Alejandro Moreno in 1995 for
UNAM’s
Museo Universitario Contemporaneo del Arte .
[8][9] He created murals of the scenery of
Juchitepec
and the Mezquital Valley between 1963 and 1964. The latter mural is
noted for its depiction of the alternating rainy and dry seasons of the
area.
[4]
Some of his most important work is the murals done at the Museo
Nacional de Antropología, with include a depiction of the area around
Teotihuacan during the pre-Hispanic era, the area around
Suchitepec and the Mezquital Valley.
[1] The Teotihuacan mural was originally proposed to Dr. Atl, who turned it down, but recommended Moreno for the assignment.
[4]
His career as an art teacher and professor began in 1946, at the Escuela Rural Mexe in Hidalgo.
[2][7] He later went on to teach at a variety of middle schools and the Escuela Normal de las Señoritas.
[2][5]
He began teaching landscape painting at the Escuela Nacional de Artes
Plásticas in 1951, organizing traveling exhibition later called
“Exposiciones viajeras” for the institution the following year.
[1][7][9] He began teaching at the La Esmeralda school in 1963, and gave classes in various locations of the country up until the 2000s.
[5][7][10] He taught artists such as illustrator
Carlos Pellicer López.
[6]
His first major award was third place at the Primer Concurso de Profesores de la ENAP Jerónimo Antonio Gil in 1969.
[2] Since then, he received various awards from INBA for his
engraving, oil and
drypoint work.
[9]
His work was honored by the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana in 1957, 1966
and 2001, culminating in the Gran Premio Annual de Adquisición. In
2010, an exhibition tracing his career was held by the same institution.
[7] A book of his work called “Los árboles en la plastic de Nicolás Moreno” was published in 2008.
[4] He was honored for his life’s work at the
Museo Nacional de Arte.
[1]
In 2012, the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana held a posthumous homage
exhibition called “La naturaleza del paisaje” with 76 works representing
the artist’s career. The 2012 exhibit included works such as “El
Pedregal y los pirules,” “Cerro de órganos” and “Tres amates” as they
show his patience with detail work.
[7]
Later in his life, charitable works included a donation of painting for the opening of the
Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Artes in 1991.
[2] He also created a scholarship for the Escuela de Artes Plásticas “Ruben Herrera” in
Coahuila .
[9][11]
Artistry
He created works in
etching,
aquatint and
drypoint as well as oils,
[6] dedicating most of his artwork to capturing the varying landscapes of the Mexican country side.
[1] In 2010, the director of
INBA, Teresa Vicencio, awarded Moreno a diploma officially recognizing him as the “heir” of other noted Mexican landscape artists
José María Velasco and
Dr. Atl as well as the “ambassador of our lands.”
[6][12] His work, especially those depicting forests, has elements similar to German
Romanticist David Friedrich.
[7] He remained faithful to landscape painting his entire life.
[2]
Moreno began his career as a landscape artist at a time when the land
and the people’s relation to it were promoted as elements of Mexico’s
identity. It was not enough to simply paint what is there, but rather
relate it to Mexico long history, especially its pre Hispanic history.
However, Moreno rejected this for the most part especially in his later
career preferring more realistic depictions as a witness to natural
phenomena, feeling that trying to do more than that was the fall into
clichés. However, this made Moreno an innovator as he broke with former
conventions in landscape painting such as balance, proportion and
harmony, preferring instead to paint his first impression of a site. He
rejected the folklorization of landscape painting such as those done by
Costumbrismo in the 19th century and with the manipulation of color in unnatural ways.
[13]
Although he has painted landscapes of areas in Europe and South America, the focus of his work has been Mexico.
[14] The painter stated that he paints the scenery as he finds it, even areas which have been devastated ecologically.
[14]
He stated in 2010, “I don’t only look from afar, but also details such
as destruction, poverty, misery and beauty. I don’t make pretty
pictures, I make painting that are interesting or transcendent, at least
to me.”
[1][6]
While he did not consider himself to be an ecological activist, he
did express concern about the deterioration of Mexico’s natural
landscapes and his art testifies to it.
[6]
He stated once that “With my work I want to make young people
understand that their Earth and its expressions are important because it
is a way for them to sense themselves, to be proud of who they are and
give proper testimony.”
[9] Some of his first landscapes were of the Pedregal in
San Ángel, with its hardened lava flows. However, only remnants of this ecosystem remain because of urban sprawl. The
Lacandon Jungle has been reduced to a quarter of what it once was since his first visit in 1944.
[14]
To see more of who died in 2012
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Jiang was of mixed Chinese and Japanese descent. She was the third daughter of Jiang Baili, a leading military strategist of Chiang Kai-shek, and his Japanese wife, Satō Yato (佐藤屋子?). Jiang was a cousin of the novelist Jin Yong who also came from Haining.
