Guillermo Meza (artist)

Guillermo Meza Álvarez ( born September 11, 1917 in Mexico City; † October 1997 ) was a Mexican painter and stage painter.

Biography

Guillermo Meza came from modest circumstances. His father Melitón Meza García was a Mexican indigenous descent, his mother's name was Soledad Álvarez Molina. From 1926 he attended the school and was interested at a young age for arts subjects. He learned later at the workers' night school Escuela Nocturna de Arte para Trabajadores No. 1 and then at the Escuela España - México, while he casually activities as a salesman, mechanic, plumber, Photographer, Retuschierer and caretaker pursued in order to earn his livelihood. His art teachers were the painter Francisco Díaz de León Santos Balmori and Picazo. At the Escuela España - México, he also met his future wife, Josefa Sánchez, known as " Pepita ", whom he married in 1947 and with whom he had four children Carolina, Federico, Magdalena and Alejandro.

In 1939 he was discovered by Diego Rivera and enabled him in 1940 by his relationship with Inés Amor 's first solo exhibition at the Galeria de Arte Mexicano. There followed several exhibition appearances in Mexico, the United States and in Europe. In 1947 he worked at the Mexican Academy of Dance Academia Mexicana de Danza and a year later with the musicians of the Linterna mágica ( magic lantern ). He was president of the First National Congress of visual artists (Primer Congreso Nacional de Artistas Visuales ) of the Ministry of Education ( Secretaría de Cultura ) in Distrito Federal de México and won in 1953 and 1954 at the national painting competitions of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. On May 6, 1968, his wife " Pepita " died in Contreras, where the family lived at that time. In 1977, he also worked as a costume designer for Bühnermaler and a Norwegian ballet company. His paintings are now among the collections of renowned museums of America. He died of a heart attack.