José Chávez Morado
[1][2] His father was a merchant, José Ignacio Chávez Montes de Oca; his mother was Luz Morado Cabrera.
[2][3] His mother died when he was a teenager, and at age 16, he began to work at the Silao electrical company, Compañia de Luz.
[2][3] He then went to work at the national railway company, Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, which allowed him to travel some of the Mexican countryside.
At the counter, he would draw images of the customers and other typical people, which he sold when the store closed and he moved to Mexico City.
At the Centro Popular de Pintura "Saturnino Herrán" he met Leopoldo Méndez, whose posters he had taken from the streets to decorate his room.
[3] He also met Olga Costa, who was born in Leipzig, Germany, the daughter of Russian émigré musician Jacob Kostakowsky.
[3] In his later life, he and his wife resided for a time in San Miguel de Allende, then moved permanently to the city of Guanajuato in 1966.
[2][5] Other early murals include one for the Multifamiliar Doctores of the ISSSTE and the Teachers’ College in Guadalajara, both of which were created with glass pieces.
[9] In 1954 he created mosaic murals for the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes building, made of tile and colored stone.
Inaugurated in 1993, the museum´s ground floor contains the permanent collections which includes furniture, ceramics, glass, plaster of paris, altarpieces and masks.
[3] In 1937 he traveled as part of a committee of Mexican intellectuals which included Silvestre Revueltas, Juan de la Cabada, Octavio Paz, Carlos Pellicer, Elena Garro and José Mancisidor to Spain to support the Republicans.
[3] In the 1940s, he was the secretary general of the Fine Arts Professors’ Union, which made non-commercial engravings with socialist messages to paste on poles outside.
[3] Later work included the reliefs on the column of the "umbrella" structure in the center of the Museo Nacional de Antropología in 1964, a monument to Benito Juárez on the Guadalajara-Colima highway in the 1970s, and the copper grilling on the façade of the new Legislative Palace in Mexico City.
[6] In 1976, he exhibited his drawing work for the first time at the José Clemente Orozco Gallery in Zona Rosa, with the title of Apuntes de mi libreta, which were later published in a book of the same name.
[2][6] He received his first recognition for his work in 1945 when he won first prize at a graphics competition sponsored by the Mexico City government for the 25th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.
[2][6] He is grouped with contemporaries such as Juan O'Gorman, Raúl Anguiano and Alfredo Zalce as the generation of the school to follow Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros .
His work emphasized faith in the masses, the exaltation of the struggle and heroes of the Mexican Revolution, popular culture and the railroad.
[2] His painting tended to emphasize the human form, with depictions of rural areas in Mexico, customs, dances and folk religion.
By the mid 20th century, his politics and art became militant and communist, as can best be seen in his engravings and the work he did with the Taller de Gráfica Popular.
