José Hernández Delgadillo

A mural painting in the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico, artwork of José Hernández. José Hernández Delgadillo (1927 – December 26, 2000) was a Mexican painter and muralist best known for carrying on the traditions of Mexican muralism in the latter 20th century. He created over 160 murals in Mexico and the United States, with most of his work, especially after 1970, containing strong political messages. Many of these messages have been unpopular in Mexico, which has made the artist somewhat obscure and some of his murals have been destroyed. Hernández Delgadillo's main recognition is membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana honor society, but his home state has made effort to rescue and promote his life and work.

Life Hernández Delgadillo was born in Tepeapulco in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, the son of a poor rural farm worker. He grew up working on farms, road construction, in a greenhouse and making furniture.

In addition to his art career, he was also very politically active. He believed that popular organization in neighborhoods, unions and schools was necessary to exert non-violent pressure against the government.

Career Hernández Delgadillo's first exhibition of his easel work was in 1954 in Mexico City. He returned to school afterwards but when he finished his studied, he won recognition at two biennials, the II Bienal Interamericana in Mexico and the II Biennale de Paris for his expressionistic painting called Hombres (1961). This success earned him a grant to Paris from the French government. From 1963 to 1965 he lived in the country, exhibiting his work in Nice, Lyon, Marseille, Le Havre and Bordeaux as well as in the Reflets Gallery in Brussels and the Biosca Gallery in Madrid. The Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris bought one of his works as well.

Other activities during his career include sculpture, receiving commissions between 1959 and 1960, and illustrating medical books in 1963 and 1972. In 1997 he organized the first competition of murals and public art called the Jornada Mundial del Arte Público y Muralismo, at the Palacio de Bellas Artes . The Efrén Rebolledo Cultural Center in Pachuca has a gallery named after him. However, his work has become obscure, mostly because they espouse unpopular and radical political ideas.

Artistry Hernández Delgadillo was an artist and activist in the tradition of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, with his work more closely related to the second state of Mexican muralism rather than his contemporary Generación de la Ruptura . This was particularly true after the 1968 student uprising in Mexico, which inspired the artist to incorporate its ideology to reinvigorate Mexico's traditions of murals with social and political messages. In 1975, he described himself as one of the few artists still “fighting for Mexico.” He stated that it was “… very risky to do political art now. You put your subsistence and liberty at stake.” He also stated “After 1970, I conceived most of my visual work in line with popular struggles, in books, periodicals, posters, films and murals; this side of my work is predictably ignored by the educated public, and negated and attacked even by critics who purport to be revolutionaries.”

He worked in oil, acrylics, mixed media, print and poster making and some sculptures in bronze. His style was mostly expressionistic, often denouncing acts of violence. Some murals, such as those done at university campuses rely on simple, basic colors but others more nuanced used of color, such as shades of reds and ochre are used to express anger at social injustices. Justino Fernandez wrote “In the works of Hernández Delgadillo, we find a definite sense of the monumental and certain underlying classicism combined with personal expressionism. This may seem contradictory, but is not, thanks to the synthesis to which he brings both tendencies.” “His giants – images of men and women, entire or fragmented nudes with extraordinarily expressive heads large or small, their features barely insinuated, their eyes tiny – betray his humanist leanings.” Similar to the artists of the Mexican muralism movement, he used indigenous cultural expression to highlight the country's heritage, its abilities as well as how it has been exploited. Many of his figures have a primeval quality, as if they sprang from the earth.