Leopoldo Flores (1934 – April 3, 2016) was a Mexican
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
mostly known for his murals and other monumental works which are concentrated in the city of
Toluca
Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the States of Mexico, state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. With a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census, Toluca is the fifth most populous city in M ...
,
State of Mexico
The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...
. He was born into a poor family in rural State of Mexico, but his artistic ability was evident early and he was able to attend the
and receive a scholarship to study in Paris. His best known works are the ''
Cosmovitral
The Cosmovitral is a stained glass mural and botanical garden located in Toluca, Mexico. The building takes its name from the mural which is set in the building's huge windows that surround the building and in the ceiling. The building originall ...
'' a large work in stained glass and the ''
Aratmósfera'', a “
land art
Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...
” piece both located in Toluca. The first is used as a symbol for the State of Mexico and the latter dominates the main stadium and the hill behind it at the main campus of the
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México
Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to:
Places
* Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico
* Universidad (Madrid)
Football clubs
* Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
...
(UAEM). He received a number of recognitions of his work from the State of Mexico and an honorary doctorate from the UAEM, which also founded the Museo Universitario Leopoldo Flores to house and promote his work. Despite advanced
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
, until his death Flores was still an active artist.
Life
Leopoldo Flores, full name Leopoldo Flores Valdés, was born to a poor family in 1934 in the small town of San Simonito de los Comales in the municipality of
Tenancingo, State of Mexico
Tenancingo is one of 125 municipalities in the State of Mexico, Mexico. The municipal seat is the town of Tenancingo de Degollado. The municipality is located in the south of the state, in the Tenancingo Valley, just outside the Toluca Valley. ...
, Mexico.
His talent for art was evident in his youth,
[ studying at Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" from 1953 to 1960.] In 1962, he received a scholarship to attend the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...
in Paris. This experience exposed him to more artistic influences and allowed him to participate in collective exhibitions in Europe.[
His career spanned from the early 1960s to his death in 2016. He returned to Paris to paint on several occasions, with the last being in the 1980s when he did a series of self-portraits including those which likened him to ]Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...
, Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
and Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
.
He was married to Dolores Almada.
Flores was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2000, which he documented in a self-portrait named ''Hombre con temblor en la mano izquierda'' (''Man with shaking in the left hand'').[ He went to Cuba to receive treatment.] Despite its advanced stage and concerns about his health, he continued to work.
Career
Since 1960, Flores exhibited his work both in Mexico and abroad. From 1962 to 1968, most of these exhibits were collective, including at the Palacio de Bellas Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It has hosted notable events in music, dance, theatre, opera and literature in Mexico and has held important exhibitions of painting, sculpture and p ...
during the Festival Solar of the Mexico City Olympics
The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...
in 1968.[ From 1970 to 1971 he coordinated the “Plastica 70” exhibition and exhibited at the Sala de Arte Moderno of the Casa de Cultura of Toluca.][ The most recent individual exhibitions of his art were Génesis de tormenta and Apuntes de taller, both held at the Museo Universitario Leopoldo Flores in Toluca. Genesis contains thirty abstract acrylics in small format focused on the pollution called by oil drilling in the ]Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
.[ Apuntes was a retrospective which contained 320 drawings, many never exhibited before, as well as photographs by Carlos Hahn.]
One of Flores first major successes was in 1969 with the creation of “pancarta” murals, which consisted of the placement of large pieces of fabric over the exterior of buildings. Examples of works of this type include Retorno de la gran manada and Desembardo de los marines, which were places at Plaza Beau-bourg of the Centre Georges Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
and the vestibule of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
.[ In 1972 he also created a pancarta mural for an exhibition over the Hidalgo Market in Toluca. In addition to this movement he also headed a movement called Arte Abierto in 1976, along with working as a promoter of the fine arts for the State of Mexico in 1969.][
Flores is best known for his monumental works, especially murals, most of which are located in the city of Toluca.][ Early murals include ''El hombre contemporáneo'' at the Hotel Plaza Morelos (1971), ''El hombre comtemplando al hombre'' at the Palacio de Poder Legislativo (1972-1983) and ''Alianza de las culturas'' at the Alianza Franciasa de Toluca building (1985) .][ Others include ''El Hombre Universal'' at the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales at UAEM (1989), and ''En búsqueda de la justicia'' at the Procuraduría General de Justicia (1991-1992) .][ From 2001 to 2002 he created ''De qué color es el Principio'' at the Colegio Mexiquense, and in 2002 worked on ''Periplo plástico'' at the Museo de Arte Moderno of the ]Centro Cultural Mexiquense
Centro Cultural Mexiquense is a cultural center located on the western edge of the city of Toluca in central Mexico. The center is run by the State of Mexico government through an agency called the Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura (IMC), the larges ...
.[ The latter mural is filled with symbols such as exploding light for the ]Big Bang theory
The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
, along with the appearance of man and manifestations of art. In 2004 he created the ''La Cátedra de la Justicia'' at the Escuela de Judicial del Estado de México in only two months.[ In 2006 he created the mural ''Justicia Supremo Poder'' for the Palacio de la ]Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ( es, Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) is the Mexican institution serving as the country's federal high court and the spearhead organisation for the judiciary of the Mexican Federal Gov ...
in Mexico City. It was created in Toluca and transferred to the court building in 2007.[ It is located in the northeast corner of the main stairs, with a size of about 300m2 in three levels,][ sharing space with works by ]Luis Nishizawa
Luis Nishizawa (February 2, 1918 – September 29, 2014) was a Mexican artist known for his landscape work and murals, which often show Japanese and Mexican influence. He began formal training as an artist in 1942 at the height of the Mexican mu ...
, Rafael Cauduro
Rafael may refer to:
* Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin
* Rafael, California
* Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology
* Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane
Fiction
* ''R ...
and Ismael Ramos Ismael may refer to:
People
* Ismael Balkhi, a political activist from Afghanistan
* Ismael Blanco (born 1983), an Argentine professional footballer
* Ismael Prego "Wismichu", a Spanish youtuber
* Ismael Villegas, a Puerto Rican Major League Bas ...
. From 2009 to 2010 he created a mural for the State of Mexico placed at the Palacio del Gobierno in Toluca, about the Bicentennial of Mexico's Independence and Centennial of the Mexican Revolution.[
However, his two best known works are located in the city of Toluca, the ]Cosmovitral
The Cosmovitral is a stained glass mural and botanical garden located in Toluca, Mexico. The building takes its name from the mural which is set in the building's huge windows that surround the building and in the ceiling. The building originall ...
, which today serves as an important identity marker for the State of Mexico and Aratmósfera. The Cosmovitral was a renovation of an old Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori ( or ; ; 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915), known as Porfirio Díaz, was a Mexican general and politician who served seven terms as President of Mexico, a total of 31 years, from 28 November 1876 to 6 Decem ...
era market. The interior was turned into a botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
and the windows were replaced by large glass murals with 48 panels which cover an area of 3,200 m2. Inaugurated in 1980, the theme of the work is the opposition of day and night, woman and man, and good and bad. The glass work used about 75 tons of metal substructure, 45 tons of blown glass and 25 tons of lead solder.[ The Cosmovitral was named in 2007 as one of thirteen wonders of Mexico and in 2008 it received the Excelsis prize from the Global Quality Foundation.][
''Aratmósfera'' covers an area of over part of a small mountain, Cerro de Coatepec, and into the stands of the Estadio Universitario Alberto Chivo Córdoba, the university stadium on the Ciudad Universitaria campus of the ]Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México
Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to:
Places
* Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico
* Universidad (Madrid)
Football clubs
* Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
...
.[ As the hill itself is part of the work, it is a type of “]land art
Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...
”, and Flores was the first in Mexico to employ the technique. The theme of the work is the birth of light, represented by man, which emerges from the earth and rises, looking and reaching for the sky.[ Although it has been restored twice since its creation between 1974 and 1978, it has problems with deterioration.]
In addition to mural work, other monumental pieces include a sculpture called ''Tocando el Sol'' (Touching the Sun) found at the main administration building of the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. In 1992, he experimented with painting over snow on the sides of the Nevado de Toluca
Nevado de Toluca () is a stratovolcano in central Mexico, located about west of Mexico City near the city of Toluca. It is the fourth highest of Mexico's peaks, after Pico de Orizaba, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. The volcano and the area ar ...
volcano.[
His recognitions include the Meztli Award in 1964, the Acquisition Prize in Painting from INBA in 1968,][ the José María Velasco Award from the State of Mexico in 1984, an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México in 2007 and the Gran Orden de la Reforma from the State of Mexico in 2007.] He was also a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.
Artistry
Although best known for murals and other monumental works, Flores also worked with various media, techniques and sizes.[ Traditional media include oils, acrylics, watercolors and ink in small and medium-sized formats as well as monumental.] More unusual media and materials have included cloth, rock, plaster, glass, wood, snow, vegetation, paper and cardboard.[ One collection is a series of ink drawings on paper napkins, which belongs to the Máxima Casa de Estudios.][ ''El Minotauro'' is painted over live rock at the Museo Universitario.][ Colors that frequently appear in his work include reds, yellows, ochre, grays, blues and black.]
His work has been featured in writings by notable Mexican art critics including Raquel Tibol
Raquel or Racquel is a variation of the given name Rachel. Notable people with the name include:
Raquel
*Raquel (wrestler), Brazilian professional wrestler
*Raquel Alessi (born 1983), American former actress and model
*Raquel Naa Ayorkor Ammah (b ...
, Antonio Rodriguez and Berta Taracena .[ He considered his work to be a continuance of Mexican muralism, and he has been described as a “disciple” of ]David Alfaro Siqueiros
David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with ...
.[ He is an important figure in Mexican art of the latter 20th century, but his work is neither decorative nor didactic. Rather it focuses on timeless conflicts of the human race.] Social problems his work has tackled include violence and consumption. Notable works of this type include ''Cien Hecatombes'' (1972), ''A la opinion pública'' (1973), ''El Hielo de Ariadna'' (1983) and a series of Christ figures (1994) .[ His work is mostly figurative, with images of men and nature. When women appear, they usually accompany men.] One of his influences include the writings of José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which heco ...
, who he had the chance to meet.
Museo Universitario Leopoldo Flores
In the early 2000s the artist donated a collection of his works to the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, which opened the Museo Universitario Leopoldo Flores in 2002, which the purpose of promoting, investigating and recording the artist's work.[ (http://www.uaemex.mx/muslf/) The museum was opened in 2002, in a building constructed for the purpose at the Ciudad Universitaria, with Flores participating in the design.][ It contains a collection of portable murals, large paintings, drawings and sculptures donated by the artist.] Among these works are ''El hijo de Ariadna'' and ''Los cristos''.[
It has six halls for temporary exhibitions, a library, photographic collection, bookstore, cafeteria and first aid station.][ He had a workshop in the museum similar to the one in his home.][ In addition to the permanent collection, the museum also holds temporary exhibits by contemporary artists along with guided tours, concerts, conferences, book presentations and workshops.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flores, Leopoldo
1934 births
2016 deaths
20th-century Mexican painters
Mexican male painters
21st-century Mexican painters
Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" alumni
20th-century Mexican sculptors
20th-century Mexican male artists
21st-century Mexican male artists