Antonio Peláez (1921–1994) was a Mexican artist of Spanish origin, who began his career in portraits but in the 1950s shifted to abstract art, concerned with texture, color and the use of space. His work was recognized by a retrospective at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and a tribute by the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana after his death.

Life

Antonio Peláez was born in Llanes, Asturias in the north of Spain in 1921. He grew up in an artistic family and was drawn to music, literature and painting at an early age, exploring these through drawing and painting while still in Spain, studying there to the high school level and beginning his art studies at the Pérez Galdós Institute in Madrid. He immigrated to Mexico in 1936, obtaining Mexican citizenship in 1937. He continued his art studies at

Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" La Esmeralda or Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado (ENPEG) (English: National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking) is a Mexican art school founded in 1927 and located in Mexico City. History The history of the ENPEG start ...

, where he met other artists who influenced his work, if not directly, then through conversations and other contact. Pélaez is the brother of the Mexican writer Francisco Tario. In the 1940s, he traveled for five years in Europe, to Italy, France, Greece and Egypt, where he studied the works of

Antoni Tàpies Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalan People, Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. Life The son of Jo ...

, Jean Dubuffet, Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson,

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

and Mark Rothko . Peláez died at the age of 73 in Mexico City.

Career

Peléaz began his career in the 1940s, working for a year in the workshop of

Jesús Guerrero Galván Jesús Guerrero Galván (b. June 1, 1910 – d. May 11. 1973) was a Mexican artist, a member of the Mexican muralism movement of the early 20th century. He began his career in Guadalajara but moved to Mexico City to work on mural projects in the ...

. In 1942, he created a series of self-portraits and a decade later he published a book with the portraits of twenty Mexican women including Inés and Carolina Amor, Lola Alvarez Bravo,

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, ...

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and

Dolores del Río María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete (3 August 1904 – 11 April 1983), known professionally as Dolores del Río (), was a Mexican actress. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is regarded as the first major female Latin Am ...

. After spending time in Europe, he began exhibiting his artwork in Mexico, starting with the Galería de Arte Contemporáneo in 1952, after being introduced by Frida Kahlo. This was followed by another in the same venue in 1956, and then in various sites in Mexico and countries such as France, Spain and Israel, including a successful exhibition at the X

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, Brazil. Notable appearance in collective exhibitions include the Autorretrato and obra in 1965 at the

Museo de Arte Moderno The Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) is located in Chapultepec park, Mexico City, Mexico. The museum is part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura and provides exhibitions of national and international contemporary a ...

, the Confrontación 66 exhibit at the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Travesia de la escritura event at the Carrillo Gil Museum in 1980. In 1973, the Palacio de Bellas Artes held a retrospective of his work with his last exhibition during his lifetime in 1981 at the Museo de Arte Moderno. After his death, the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana held an exhibition and tribute of his work in 2001. His work has been written about by people such as Octavio Paz,

Ramón Xirau Ramón Xirau Subías (, ; 20 January 1924 – 26 July 2017) was a Spanish-born Mexican poet, philosopher and literary critic.
...

, Edmundo O'Gorman,

Justino Fernández Justino Fernández García (September 28, 1904 – December 12, 1972) was a researcher, historian and art critic who is particularly known for his work documenting and critiquing Mexican art of the 20th century. Fernandez studied and developed his ...

and

Margarita Nelken Margarita Nelken (5 July 1894– 5 March 1968) was a Spanish feminist and writer. She was a well known intellectual and a central figure in the earliest Spanish women's movement in the 1930s. Early life and education Nelken was born María Ter ...

, with articles and reproductions of his works published in Mexico, France and the United States. He was accepted as a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museo de Arte Moderno, the modern art museums of Madrid, Tel-Aviv and Philadelphia.

Artistry

In the 1940s, Peláez concentrated on portrait work, both of himself and others. Although compared to those done by

Manuel Rodríguez Lozano Manuel Rodríguez Lozano (December 4, 1896 – March 27, 1971) was a List of Mexican artists, Mexican painter, known for his “melancholy” depiction of Mexico rather than the more dominant political or festive one of the Mexican muralism movem ...

and Juan Soriano, Octavio Paz noted that the teenaged painter was not impressed with the dominant artistic trends in Mexico at the time (such as Mexican muralism) and who work did not show influence from it. Instead, Paz notes that elements of his later abstract work could be seen even in these portraits. Influences on Peláez's work include Nicolas de Staël and Antoni Tàpies but it was contact with the person and art of Rufino Tamayo that prompted the artist to gradually abandon figurative painting during the 1950s. Instead, Peláez became interested in texture, tact and space, with elements such as sand, rocks suns, phases of the moon, spheres, curs with colors such as ochre and yellow and especially white. The earth was a center of many of his pieces but generally how it related to the sun and stars. These works lost any sense of narration and even were created to interact with urban wall space. Peláez considered himself a mathematician in the composition of his works. Octavio Paz wrote “Peláez paints the space of the space: the painting is the wall and the wall is the painting; the space from which the rest of the spaces radiate, the sea, the sky, the plains, the horizon, another wall.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelaez, Antonio Portrait painters People from Asturias 1921 births 1994 deaths Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" alumni 20th-century Mexican painters Mexican male painters Spanish emigrants to Mexico 20th-century Mexican male artists