Arturo Garcia Bustos
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Arturo Garcia Bustos (born 1926), is a famous Mexican painter.
[edit] Biography
Arturo Garcia Bustos was born in Mexico City, Mexico near the Zocalo on August 8, 1926. The cultural and political environment fasicinated the youthful Bustos, as he is called by friends and family, and influenced greatly his artistic development. In 1941, when he was barely 15, he entered the "Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas and the following year entered the "Escuela de Pintura y Escultura (La Esmeralada) where his teachers were Frida Kahlo, Feliciano Pena, Agustin Lazo and Maria Izquierdo.
The year 1945 was decisive. He was one of the four students who followed Frida Kahlo to Coyoacan (these students became know as "los Fridos"), he entered the Taller Grafica Popular (TGP) and he participated in the founding of the group "Artistas Jovens Revolucionarios." Starting in 1945, he had a close relations with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Rina Lazo, who was an assistant of Diego Rivera, has been his partner and wife for over 60 years. With her, he shares the "Casa de la Malinche" where they both paint and create engravings.
In 1952 the "Frente Nacional de Artes Plasticas" was founded, pronuncing that this group of artists would be the representative of the workers in the arts in Mexico. In 1953, he came to Guatemala with his artist wife Rina, a Guatemalan by birth, where he gave an Important workshop on engraving. These works are still exhibited in Guatemala.
His four main themes in these lithographs are 1) Scenes of rural Mexican Life; 2) the fight of different towns for liberation; 3) the campaign in favor of disarmement and peace and 4) portraites of people.
Today, Arturo Garcia Bustos is recognized as one of the greatest Mexican lithographers and as one of the best Mexican painters and muralists. His murals can be seen in the Oaxaca room of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico, the subway stop at UNAM, the stairways of the Municipal Palace in Oaxaca, to mention only a few. In June of 1999, Rina and Bustos conducted a masters class iin Italy teaching the art of the mural where they painted a mural. Without doubt, the aspect most relevant of his powerful work is his ability to show the social realism around him. His works center around social and political critcism and constitute a cry of protest against injustice and a constant fight for peace.
Garcia Bustos' hundreds of works have been exhibited in Argentina, Austria, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, the United States. In the 1950's, he was not allowed to enter the United States because of his political beliefs. Today, he participates in important exhibitions of his works in that country.
He has been a member of the World Peace Council, the Mexican Platic Arts Hall and the Mexican Academy of Arts, among other organizations.
On March 29, 2005, a collection consisting of eleven of his paintings was exhibited at the "Museo Mural Diego Rivera" of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, in Mexico City.
He is currently working on a new mural.
Sylvia Talbert de Lazo
