Francisco Icaza

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Francisco Icaza is a Mexican artist best known for his oil painting. He has spent much of his life living and visiting various countries in the world. In fact, he began painting as a child at the Mexican embassy in Germany during the rise of the Nazis and continued painting as a form of therapy to deal with the issues of his nomadic life. Icaza has exhibited his work both in Mexico and abroad, with two major individual exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Moderno. He also painted a mural at the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca, a focus of controversy when the work was moved and restored in the early 2000s. Icaza and others claim that the work was in fact destroyed and a copy created in its place. He is a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.

Life

Icaza was born in the Mexican embassy in San Salvador in 1930, the son of a well known diplomat.[1] Much of his childhood was spent in Germany with the rise of the Nazis. As he spent much time alone as a child, he began painting.[2] His youth was very nomadic living in and visiting countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and America.[1]

A stay in Madrid gave him experience with the works of European masters, but it was after a year of studying political science that he decided to study painting at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts. In 1951 he moved to New York, graduated as a stage designer.[1] He also studied under Rufino Tamayo in New York and later under Antonio Rodríguez Luna in Mexico.[2]

Icaza himself recognized the impact that his nomadic upbringing and the war had on his personality.[1] As a youth, he was diagnosed with Babel syndrome, a type of neurosis defined by Swiss psychologist Claude Piron.[2] In 1951, he had his first depressive crisis which led him to decide to move to his native country of Mexico. By 1953, he had developed a daily habit of painting for therapeutic purposes and deal with his solitude.[1]

The artist speaks multiple languages and a devout reader of Albert Camus. He was a friend of Ray Bradbury and Aldous Huxley and admirer of José Clemente Orozco, all of whom have affected his work, as well as his political ideas, which are strongly socialist and have not changed over his life.[3] He is well versed in the art tendencies of the present and the past, and also has ample knowledge of ancient cultures and literatures of various countries and epochs.[2] The artist has stated he has been fascinated by codices and other historical works that take advantage of signs and images to convey their meaning.[4]

From the 1950’s to 1968 he remained in Mexico, but the political turmoil after the Tlatelolco massacre caused him to leave Mexico again, not returning until 1993. During that time he lived or spent time in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Denmark and Germany.[3]

In the early 2000’s he was involved in a controversy related to his mural done at the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca. In 2001, the Costco group bought the former casino to build new facilities, a move Icaza questioned the validity of. He protested the sale and the plan to restore his and other murals to be moved to the Parque Morelos Cultural Center. The project went ahead, but the artists were not permitted to see the restoration work. After the murals were shown to the public in their new location in 2004, the artists denounced the works as copies or fakes, claiming the originals were destroyed.[5][6]

He is married to Tony Marcín[7] and lives in Mexico.[1]

Career

He began his career when he joined a group of artists called the Sociedad Mexicana de Interioristas or Nueva Presencia.[1] Later, in 1968 he formed the Salón Independiente along with Vicente Rojo Almazán and Manuel Felguérez.[1][3]

He also painted a mural at the Casino de la Selva, a former casino that was converted into a hotel in Cuernavaca.[6] He was commissioned along with José Renau and José Reyes Meza, but created his own work called La farandula, an apologia for the world of clowns and actors.[1][3][6]

Icaza rejects the commercialization of art but admits that an artist needs to live from his work, taking advantage of different opportunities.[3] Despite his strong criticism of the Mexican government during his life, he has felt no contradiction in taking grants from it as he says that the government has always supported the arts and he is part of that.[3] These have included a position as a cultural attaché for the Mexican embassy in Colombia .[1] In 1993, he received a special grant from CONACULTA to return to Mexico and paint in oils full time, after he had been working in other media.[3]

Icaza’s work has been exhibited in various venues in Mexico and abroad. His major exhibitions include the Museo de Arte Moderno (1978 and 1998), the Phoenix Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego .[1][3] In 2011, he had an exhibition at the Galería Machado in Mexico City, sponsored by CONACULTA.[7][8] The Museo de Arte Moderno holds several of Icaza’s works.[3]

Icaza is a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.[9]

Artistry

Icaza has been classified as part of the Generación de la Ruptura, the art movement that followed Mexican muralism .[3] He had social content in his work, that reflected his socialist ideals, much like the muralists; however his painting was not a communication with the masses.[1]

He experimented with a wide range of themes and techniques, always putting drawing first. His production had marked periods, from neo figuration to criticism and from there to works that recall the ancient cultures as humorous and satirical recurrences. Following the line of the Interiorists, he painted self portraits revelatory of his own state of mind. He produced a series of oil paintings and drawings of prostitutes and the Lumpenproletariat that shows influence from German Expressionism and symbolist painter James Ensor .[1] The artist states that while he has changed styles and techniques, elements of expressionism remain constant in his work,[4] stating “When I draw I try to transmit my obsessions as a thinking being, as a vital part of the 20th century; my usual themes are life and death.”[1]

Icaza produced gouaches, engravings and drawings conceived in book form such as La fiera malvada, Animales míticos, Breve historia de una mano juguetona, El viaje erótico and Sancho escuchando la lectura del Quijote. The images here were not conceived as illustrations for texts rather he invented arguments and used a language of ideographs with have a similarity to symbolism and surrealism.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Guillermo Tovar de Teresa (1996). Repertory of Artists in Mexico: Plastic and Decorative Arts II. Mexico City: Grupo Financiero Bancomer. p. 186. ISBN 968 6258 56 6. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Será inaugurada exposición pictórica de Francisco Icaza". Mexico City: NOTIMEX. August 18, 2011. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Virginia Bautista (November 25, 1998). "Recrea Francisco Icaza la esencia de sus viajes". Mexico City: Reforma. p. 4. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Alejandro Alonso (December 11, 1998). "Poesia y pintura en el MAM". Mexico City: Reforma. p. 27. 
  5. ↑ "Rechazan autores obra restaurada". Mexico City: Reforma. May 7, 2004. p. 1. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Raquel Fierro (July 23, 2001). "Cuestiona Icaza propiedad del predio". Mexico City: Reforma. p. 4. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Inauguran exposición "Óleos del pintor Francisco Icaza"". Mexico City: Milenio. August 27, 2011. Retrieved August 4, 2013. 
  8. ↑ "Misterios de Francisco Icaza en exposición". Guadalajara: El Informador. August 27, 2011. Retrieved August 4, 2013. 
  9. ↑ "Lista de miembros" [List of members] (in Spanish). Mexico City: Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. Retrieved August 3, 2013. 
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