Ricardo Martínez de Hoyos
Ricardo Martínez de Hoyos (October 28, 1918 – January 11, 2009) was a Mexican painter noted for his figurative work on unreal atmospheres.
[3][4] In 1925, he began his education at the Alberto Correa primary school, but three years later, the family went to live in San Antonio, Texas, where his mother had relatives.
[3][5] This experience made Martínez learn English fluently and a fan of works by authors Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, William Faulkner, John Dos Passos and Walt Whitman .
[4] To please his parents, Martínez then went to study law at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México but dropped out months later to pursue painting.
[2][4] His main political connections were through two fellow students from law school Luis Echeverría and José López Portillo, both of whom went on to become president of Mexico.
When Martínez needed a base to grind pigments, López Portillo took apart a French bureau from his family’s home to donate the marble top.
[1][5] In break into the Mexico City market, Martínez compiled a series of oils, tempera and drawings for the Galería de Arte Mexicano directed by Inés Amor.
[7] His work featured prominently in collective exhibitions of Mexican art in countries such as the United States, Guatemala, Sweden, Peru, Great Britain, Argentina, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Poland and El Salvador.
[7] One collection abroad with a work is that of the Vatican, given as a gift to Pope Paul IV by then Mexican president Echeverría.
[4] He created the sets for the dance piece Xochipili Macuilxoxohitl by Carlos Chavez in 1948, when he began teaching classes in painting at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Spring.
He then taught in San Diego and then back in Mexico City, counting artists such as Lucinda Urrusti, Susan Sollins, and Gerardo López Bonilla among his students.
[3][5] This shows the influence of Mexican muralism, mostly through his associations with Juan Soriano, Jesús Guerrero Galván and later Federico Cantú.
[2][5] However, Martínez never copied the style of the muralists and early began experimenting with different techniques such as tempera, gouache and watercolors, as well as stylistic elements from Surrealism and non-narrative figurative works.
[2][3] This moved him into the category of the Generación de la Ruptura although he never openly opposed the work of the Mexican muralism movement.
