1940 – d. 2005) was a Mexican artist, considered to be part of the “Intermediate Generation” or that which came to prominence after the Generación de la Ruptura.
Although he won awards and was a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana during his lifetime, his work is not well known now in part because he did not do as much to promote it as other artists did.
In 1969, he won a grant from the French government to study in Europe where he learned graphic design with Paul Colin and lithography in Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17.
[1] He also studied at the Pratt Institute and at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda", where he met Irma Palacios.
[2] In the 1960s, he participated in various collective exhibitions with his first individual shows at the Galería Antonio Souza in Mexico City in 1965 and 1968.
[1][3] According to historian Sergio Fernández, “He brings together all the qualities of the great Mexican painters but… if he is different it is because he hardly seems to be there; there is no ostentation nor desperate back-slapping, nor an irritating desire for applause.”[1] Alfonso de Neuvillate wrote that “The painting of Rodolfo Hurtado is both feeling and testament and more than the first than the second, it is also a nocturnal labyrinth interpreted in the light of day.”[1] His later works showed influence from the work of Paul Klee, Jean Dubuffte and Han Hartung, as well as Rufino Tamayo.
[3] In 1974, he discovered the writings of Carlos Castaneda, whose philosophy of life had a strong impact on his work, affecting his figures, background, and even including elements of Yaqui shamanism.