Collection: Javier Arevalo

JAVIER ARÉVALO

Javier Arévalo (Guadalajara, Jalisco, 1937–2020) was a key painter and printmaker in contemporary Mexican art, considered a pioneer of magic realism in painting. He began his art studies in his hometown and, at the age of 24, moved to Mexico City to study at the National School of Fine Arts of San Carlos. His work, characterized by its broad technical and thematic scope, ranges from figurative to abstract, drawing on anecdote, memory, humor, geometry, and nature.

For over six decades, he presented exhibitions in Latin America, the United States, Europe, and Japan. Among his landmark exhibitions are * Yo, el pintor* (Museum of Modern Art, 1970), the retrospective at the Palace of Fine Arts (1990) and the Cabañas Cultural Institute (1991), as well as the monumental watercolor *Un viaje al México profundo * (1982). His work is part of collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Museum of Modern Art (Mexico City), the Nagaoka Art Museum (Japan), the Museum of Modern Art in Switzerland, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Modern Art (Israel), among others.

He received awards and recognitions such as the National Painting Prize (Guadalajara, 1966), the Acquisition Prize of the Annual Salon of Mexican Visual Arts (1969), the Engraving Prize at the VII International Biennial of Graphic Art in Tokyo (1970), the Prize at the IX San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Engraving (1993), the Jalisco Prize for the Arts (2000), and the José Clemente Orozco Medal (2011). He was also a distinguished teacher and cultural promoter, giving lectures at the San Carlos Academy and at La Esmeralda.