Aguascalientes - Pittsburgh Sister City  

 

Ofrenda (Oferings)

Additional Details

AGUASCALIENTES’ INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS
By Angelica Martinez,

Sister City Member

SATURNINO HERRAN, Painter.
It wasn’t until I had to leave my country that I realized how I took for granted the wonderful art expressions surrounding me in my beloved Aguascalientes. I appreciated Saturnino Herran’s work later in life, and just made me proud of being “Hidrocalida” (native from Aguascalientes).
Saturnino Herran’s paintings are of a magnificent perfection: human bodies are about to come alive from his drawings, and Mexico’s history seems to come out of the smile of a native girl.

Herran’s mixed classicism with modern art forming part of a movement called Syntheticism. He was the first artist to envision the concept of Mexican art, and executed his work through a Mexican sensibility.
I invite you to know more about this extraordinary painter and to enjoy his art and expression:
Born in July 9, 1887 in the city of Aguascalientes. In 1897 he took private drawing lessons in his native city and in 1901 entered the Aguascalientes Academy of Science. He took classes with José Inés Tovilla and Severo Amador, who taught him drawing and painting. In 1903, to round off his studies, he moved to Mexico City and attended the night classes of Julio Ruelas in the San Carlos Academy. In 1904 he was a number-holding pupil in the group taught by the prize-winning Catalan painter Antonio Fabrés in the National School of Fine Arts, where his fellow pupils were Diego Rivera and Roberto Montenegro. In 1906 he attended classes given by Leandro Izaguirre and Germán Gedovius in the National School of Fine Arts. Herrán did majestic paintings of Mexican Indians, giving them heroic strength and dignity. In 1910 participated in the exhibition commemorating the Centennial Anniversary of Mexico´s Independence. His figures have been associated with the traditions of Spanish art, particularly the work of Velazquez and José de Rivera, and also the Catalan modernism. The ambition to be a mural painter appeared at the end of his brief career, and in 1911 he completed large-scale paintings in the School of Arts and Crafts. He died on October 8, 1918, at the height of the aesthetic revival of Mexican art.