Francisco Icaza

Francisco Icaza (5 October 1930 – 3 May 2014) was a Mexican artist best known for his drawings about his travels and his oil paintings. He spent much of his life living in and visiting various countries around the world. He began painting as a child while living as a refugee in the Mexican embassy in Germany. Icaza exhibited his work both in Mexico and abroad in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia and India, most notably at his three major solo exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. He also painted a mural dedicated to Bertolt Brecht, La Farándula, at the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca, a focus of controversy when the work was moved and restored in the early 2000s. He painted additional murals for the Mexican Pavilion at the HemisFair in Texas (Urban Flowers); for the Mexican Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada (Canto al Barroco Maya); and for the Mexican Pavilion in Osaka (Repressive Computers) at Expo '70. This last mural is held at the Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez in Zacatecas City. He was an active member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and also a member and founder of several important Mexican artistic movements including Los Interioristas (Nueva Presencia), El Salón Independiente, and La Confrontación 66.

Early life Icaza was born in the Mexican embassy in San Salvador on 5 October 1930, the son of a well known diplomat. Much of his childhood was spent in Germany during the rise of the Nazis. As he spent much time alone as a child, he began painting. His youth was very nomadic, as his family travelled to countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and America.

Icaza rejected the commercialization of art but admitted that an artist needs to live from his work, taking advantage of different opportunities. The Museo de Arte Moderno holds several of Icaza's works. and an active member of Salón Independiente and the movement Confrontación 66.

Later life and death In the early 2000s, Icaza was involved in a controversy related to his mural installed at the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca. In 2001, the Costco group bought the former casino to build new facilities, a move whose validity Icaza questioned. He protested the sale and the plan to restore his and other murals. The project went ahead, but the artists were not permitted to see the restoration work. After the murals were shown to the public in their new location in 2004, Icaza and other artists denounced the works as copies or fakes, claiming the originals were destroyed.

He was married to Tony Marcín for 24 years and lived in Mexico until his death.

Artistry Icaza has been classified as part of the Generación de la Ruptura, the art movement that followed Mexican muralism. stating "When I draw I try to transmit my obsessions as a thinking being, as a vital part of the 20th century; my usual themes are life and death." Icaza was well-versed in contemporary and past artistic movements, and also had ample knowledge of ancient cultures and the literatures of various countries and epochs.

Legacy In 2019, a retrospective exhibition of 145 of Icaza's works was presented by the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, titled "Francisco Icaza: me quiero ir al mar."