July 9 – Happy Birthday, Saturnino Herrán

Posted on July 9, 2018

Saturnino Herrán showed his talent at an early age. At age 10, he was already amazing at drawing, painting, and draftsmanship (technical drawing - like, drawing bridges and buildings and machines, in detail, in the correct scale). 

Herrán is older than 10
in this self-portrait!

Born on this date in 1887 in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Herrán  was lucky to have a highly educated father, who owned the only bookstore in the city and was a professor at the local Academy of Science, teaching bookkeeping. He was also lucky that he knew what he loved and was good at from an early age - 

- Because, tragically, his father died when Herrán was just 16 years old! He ended up working in a telegraph office during the day and studying painting and drawing at night. He was the breadwinner of the family; but he was so amazing at drawing and painting that he soon earned a scholarship and was able to devote himself to art full-time.

At age 18, Herrán and his family moved to Mexico City, where he studied painting but also began to teach art. 

He achieved a lot very early, and he got married and had a child in his twenties - which, again, was very lucky, because, again, there was another tragedy: Herrán died at age only 31! He had some sort of illness or problem with his digestive system, and it was this that killed him.

Here are the sorts of paintings Herrán was able to complete during his short life:

Herrán became a muralist - someone who paints murals. And mural art in Mexico became revolutionary - indigenous - important to developing a pride in Mexico and its traditions - important to developing a national spirit. Here, Herrán explores the combination of Spanish and Indigenous cultures, of the Catholic / Christian religion with homegrown Aztec / Toltec / etc. religions:

Here is some of the influence he was able to exert:

Herrán paved the way for later artists and muralists like Diego Rivera by creating artwork with deep meaning that viewers can relate to. He used watercolor paints over drawings, and in this way he could create mood, achieve naturalistic images, and connect Spanish and European techniques with Mexican Indigenous subjects.

More than anything, Herrán was known for painting Mexican Indigenous people as strong and beautiful heroes, as dignified figures, and peoples and cultures that are worth knowing and honoring.

Also on this date:

Independence Day in South Sudan 

Constitution Day in Palau

Anniversary of the building of the Charles Bridge

Inventor Elias Howe's birthday

Independence Day in Argentina

Anniversary of the settling of Romanov rumors through DNA testing

Mathematician Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn's birthday

Yadnya Kasada Ceremony in Indonesia

Sao Paulo State Day in Brazil

International Town Criers Day

(Second Monday in July)

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• July birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in July
  

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• August birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in August

September 20 - Happy Birthday, Judy Baca

Posted on September 20, 2017

Wow! Check out Judith Baca:

Artist.

Activist.

Professor of Chicano/a Studies (University of Texas, Los Angeles)

Professor of World Arts and Cultures (U. of Texas)

Artistic director of Social and Public Art Resource Center (Venice, CA)

Director of the project that created one of the largest murals in the world, the Great Wall of Los Angeles

That's a pretty amazing resume!

Above, Baca and her work in 1973.
Below, Baca and her work today.

Chicana artist Baca knew that all people should have a voice in public art, so she decided that "the people" could create murals all over Los Angeles, and she organized more than 1,000 young people to dream up and paint more than 250 murals. She encouraged youths from different ethnic backgrounds to explore their peoples' histories and to come up with murals that could connect those histories to their own lives today.

This citywide mural project started in 1974.

Another big project Baca took on, starting in 1987, was creating a huge-yet-portable mural called the World Wall. This mural promotes global peace.

I wondered what Baca was thinking about the Tr*mp administration's efforts to build a border wall and deport everyone from "bad hombres" to Dreamers. I was able to find a quote from her:

"Chicano is about resistance and affirmation of a culture. And I think [this administration is] giving many young artists purpose again and a kind of focus for their work."

"Non-violent Resistance"

From now until next January (January, 2018), the Getty Museum in Los Angeles will include Baca's work in a special exhibit called Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. (LA can mean Los Angeles, Latin America, and Latinx Art.) Two other exhibits this fall will feature Baca's work, and there are plans to extend the Great Wall mural and to add a viewing bridge, as well.

Here is another quote: [Back in the 1970s] "they called me a teacher, a social worker, even a gang member - everything but an artist...This is not what art did. It did not intervene in social spaces...It was so foreign to the arts to be engaged in social justice action or affirmative action within a community."

Also on this date:

Glass artist Dale Chihuly's birthday

Scientist and inventor James Dewar's birthday

Anniversary of the first Otis elevators

Anniversary of a statue of Buddha losing its protective hall

Anniversary of the first patent leather

Punch Day

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December 8 – Happy Birthday, Diego Rivera

Posted on December 8, 2015

He may be the most famous Mexican artist of all time.

He was married to another one of the most famous Mexican artists of all time. (Twice!)

Self-portrait of Frida Kahlo, who married
Diego Rivera two times.

I was struck by something said in this short bio – that Rivera influences how we see Mexico, and how Mexico sees itself! That's...pretty amazing, if you think about it!

Born in 1886 in Guanajuato, Mexico, Diego Rivera had Jewish ancestry, but his ancestors had been forced to convert to Catholicism; it is, perhaps, not very surprising that Rivera was a nonbeliever. He began drawing on the walls of his house at age three. Instead of punishing him, his parents installed chalkboards and canvas on the walls.

With that kind of support for his wall art, Rivera grew up to do this:

Diego Rivera grew up to make a lot of money
for drawing and painting on walls!

Diego Rivera studied painting at age 10 in Mexico City, and in Madrid, Spain, and Paris, France, as a young adult. After a decade in Paris, he traveled through Italy studying art. One thing he was interested in was Renaissance frescoes. (Frescoes are murals painted on freshly-laid, wet lime plaster. The pigments in the paint merge with the plaster and, by the time the plaster fully sets, is fully a part of the wall rather than being painted “on” the wall.)

In 1921, Rivera returned to Mexico and began painting murals in the fresco style.

Rivera's art is generally LARGE.

It tells stories.

It is influenced by Azteca and Maya art.

Above, Rivera's portrayal of Native Mexican people.
Below, Aztec portrayal of themselves.

It is political and often controversial.

His murals are not all in Mexico; there is one in San Francisco, one in Detroit, and one in New York City.

This mural appears in the San Francisco Art Institute.

Okay, I found this interesting: Rivera's most controversial painting was begun in 1933 for the Rockefeller Center in New York City. Rivera included a portrait of communist Russian leader Vladimir Lenin in the mural. Rockefeller was upset and demanded that Rivera paint over that part of the mural. Rivera refused.

This photo shows a recreation of the controversial mural.

So Rockefeller kicked him off the project.

One of Rivera's assistants managed to take a few photos of the mural. The mural itself was supposed to be destroyed, but there are rumors that it was just covered over.

Rivera was paid in full for the mural, although a commission to paint a mural at the Chicago World's Fair was canceled because of the controversy. Rivera was able to use the photos to duplicate the mural elsewhere, and he recreated the mural in Mexico City. What I found particularly interesting was that he released a statement that he would use the money he was paid for the mural to repaint the same mural for free anywhere and everywhere he was asked to do so!

Diego Rivera

This controversy has been written about in articles and poems, and it has been portrayed in movies. The dispute became part of the discussion of important issues about artistic freedom versus the rights of art patrons to see their visions carried out by the artists they hire...

Check out Artsy's Diego Rivera page!

Also on this date:

Anniversary of a lemon-squeezing device  

Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day

Blessing of the Waters Day in Uruguay

Scientist Jan Ingenhousz's birthday

Rock musician Jim Morrison's birthday

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• Historical anniversaries in January