| Antonio M. Ruíz "El Corzo" |
|
|---|---|
| Born | September 2, 1892 Texcoco, Mexico State |
| Died | 1964 Mexico City |
| Nationality | Mexican |
| Field | painting, scenic design |
| Training | Academia de San Carlos |
| Movement | Mexican muralism |
| Influenced by | Saturnino Herrán, Germán Gedovius, Flemish art |
Antonio M. Ruíz (b. Texcoco, Mexico State, September 2, 1892 – d. Mexico City, 1964), also called by friends "El Corzo" (the roe) or because of his shortness "El Corcito" (diminutive), was a Mexican painter and scenic designer. His pet-names resulted of the similarity to a torero in a picture with the same title, painted by Ignacio Zuloaga.
Ruíz moved to Mexico City in his childhood, together with his mother Mercedes and his step siblings. He studied architecture and painting at the Academia de San Carlos after 1914. By his own account, he was mainly influenced by Saturnino Herrán and Germán Gedovius, later by Flemish artists. From 1921 to 1924, he taught drawing in primary schools in the Distrito Federal de México. From 1925 to 1927 he worked as a scenic designer in Hollywood for his first time, and for a second time 1936. In 1943 followed Guillermo Ruiz on his chair as director of the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda". Ruíz reformed the "Esmeralda" basically, so that it became an official art school of the Secretaría de Educación Pública.[1]. Better friends of him were Frida Kahlo, Juan O'Gorman[2], Gabriel Fernández Ledesma and Miguel Covarrubias, who gave the impetus to his six mobile murals, titled "Peagent of the Pacific".[3]