Francisco Corzas

Francisco Corzas Chávez (October 4, 1936 - September 15, 1983) was a Mexican painter and printmaker, part of the Generación de la Ruptura. He was born in a very poor family but managed to study art in both Mexico and Italy, beginning his art career in Europe. He moved back to Mexico in the 1960s, but kept career ties in Europe with several commissions as well as exhibitions. Although he was a prolific creator, there are only about 1,500 of his works in existence because of his early death at age 47. His works can be found in museums and private collections in Europe (including the Vatican) and Mexico.

Life Born in Mexico City, Francisco Corzas was the last of eight children of Enrique Corzas and Regina Chávez, who were musicians originally from Quecholac, Puebla. He grew up in the rough Tepito neighborhood and was nicknamed Pancho. His family was extremely poor and has a child Corzas dreamed of being a bullfighter or a boxer to better his lot. However, he spent time creating drawings on the bathroom wall using pieces of coal, the first indication of his artistic talent.

He had fourteen individual exhibitions and participated in forty three in various countries of the world including Rome, Florence, Venice, Belgrade, Prague, Brussels, Vienna, New Delhi, Mumbai, Osaka, New York, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Montreal, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile. He created ten lithographs called los Profetas at the Caprina Graphics workshop in Rome and one other called Umbrío por la pena with the Upiglio workshop in Milan, and eleven lithographs related to the Carmina Burana with the Olivetti workshop. He also did painting, producing two canvases for the Vatican called Profeta (found in Room 12) and Plegaria (in the Stampa Room) . In addition to those commissions, he also received one for ten lithographs for Lublin Press in New York as well as one from the Fundación Cultural Televisa to create a work called Agonías y otras ofrendas.

The first recognition of his work was a silver medal at the Via Margutta International Fair in Rome in 1958, which gave his work international notice. He also participated in competitions in Oslo, Frenchen (Germany) and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In Mexico, he received an honorary mention from the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, of which he became a member. In 1964 he received the first Acquisition Prize of Salón 65 of Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. In 1998, fifteen years after his death, there was a homage to the artist at the Centro Cultural San Ángel, with José Luis Cuevas, Rafael Coronel, Javier Juárez and Raymundo Sesma among others.

Much of his work is found outside of Mexico, some in museums and others in private collections. In Mexico, his work can be found in the Museo de Arte Moderno (la Empaquetada (1966)) and the Museo Carrillo Gil, as well as the Fundación Cultural Televisa.

Artistry Francisco Corzas is considered to be part of Mexico's Generación de la Ruptura, the generations of artists in the 20th century who rebelled against the artistic and political precepts of Mexican muralism. These artists experimented with other forms of expression. In Corzas case, a new kind of figurative expression that left much of the definition to the imagination, especially the background, giving the works an ethereal quality. He was a prolific artist that worked on several projects at a time. He always painted with a drink at hand, listening to operatic arias at full volume.

Corzas described his work as impressionism, with strong influence from Goya; however, it has also been classified as expressionism. Corzas' strongest influence on his artistic development came from his time in Italy and his study of European movements from the Renaissance, to Baroque, to Mannerism and the more modern avant garde. Among the painters Corzas most admired was Correggio, Veronese, Tintoretto, Velazquez and especially Goya. He even signed some of his very early works with the pseudonym of "Goya." He was profoundly attracted by the past and images from the past often appeared in his work such as figures in old fashioned garments and large hats.

His preferred themes included sensual and erotic female nudes, among the best being melancholic, sadly beautiful women among faded colors that suggest a bed or a shawl. His early works focus on images of mutilated bodies and ghost like faces, often enveloped in light. Orange tones dominated and contrasted with the faces. He did not use models, basing the faces of his human figures on stories he read and some completely invented. Elements of his own face can be found in many of the figures. In addition to human, other elements included animals, which often accompanied the female nudes. These included owls, bulls, cats and especially horses. Elements of dance appeared because of his relationship with music. His formation of images was not completely realistic, leaving a lack of definition in the forms, especially the background elements. This gives the works a mysteriousness, accentuated by the play of light and shadow as well as the use of limited colors such as yellows, dark ochre and black.