Rafael Coronel

Rafael Coronel Arroyo ( born October 24, 1932 in Zacatecas ) is a Mexican painter and printmaker.

Life and work

Coronel, son of Pedro Melesio Coronel and his wife Juana Arroyo Luna and brother of the artist Pedro Coronel Arroyo, became interested after he moved to Mexico City, first for architecture. In 1952 he took part in a painting competition of the Instituto Nacional de la Juventud Mexicana in part, presented for the first time from the Museum of the Palacio de Bellas Artes and trained in painting in 1953 at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado " La Esmeralda".

Carlos Mérida later introduced him to Inés Amor, one of the two owners of the Galería de Arte Mexicano, who supported him during the presentation of his pictures. In 1964 he painted two murals in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. For his work, which could be seen in several national and international exhibitions, he has won several awards. He was married to Ruth Rivera Marín, the daughter of Diego Rivera and his second wife Lupe Marín. She died in 1969.

In his native city today carries a museum in the former San Francisco Monastery his name, in which many of his works and his collection of masks from around the world to see.