Miguel Hernández Urbán

Miguel Hernández Urbán (1936 – 2017 ) was a Mexican painter and sculptor noted for his monumental works in stainless steel. He trained as a sculptor at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas but moved into painting under Antonio Rodríguez Luna. He returned to sculpture in the 1980s, experimenting with stainless steel, creating monumental works with it starting in the 1990s. In 1992, he founded the Symposium on Stainless Steel Sculpture in his hometown, the first of its kind in the work, which has since attracted participants from the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Life

Hernández Urbán was born in Tultepec, State of Mexico, a formerly rural town, now part of the Greater Mexico City area. His interest in the arts appeared in early childhood, actively participating in musical and artistic events in his hometown and having a particular interest in classical music.

In 1954, he entered the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plástica, where he specialized in sculpture.

His work as an artist, especially his sculpture has taken him to various parts of the world.

Career

Hernández Urbán began his career working as an assistant instructor for sculptor Luis Ortiz Monasterio in 1959, then in 1960 he was appointed as technical consultant and university consultant at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. However, it is a modern interpretation done in stainless steel, a style more common in the center and north of Mexico than in the south. }

In 1992, Hernández Urbán founded the first Symposium on Stainless Steel Sculpture in Tultepec, the first of its kind in the world with the aim of promoting the material to artists, artisans and other interested parties. He is also a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.

Artistry During his career Hernández Urbán has produced oils, acrylics, tempera, engravings on wood and metal, drawings and sculptures. He has experimented with styles such as abstract art, stylized human figures, costumbrismo, surrealism, and figurative art. "The aesthetic value of a work of art is based essentially in its composition and outline, the creativity and personal tough that the artist knows how to stamp on his work."

As a painter, Francisco Moreno Capdevila commented that "the work of Miguel Hernández Urbán is an ascetic painting, bare of details, in which space is all. ‘Open to the infinite, the eye is submerged and wanders in the empty space in which form sometimes appears to disappear, being reduced to almost nothing. He frequently conveys a strange sensation of unprotectedness and desolation in a vastness with neither orientation nor direction. On occasions, the space seems to be an act of original creation without trace or sign, where time seems to be suspended in a tremendous attitude of waiting.’" The artist himself stated that "The handling of light has been a constant in my work. I am not an artist who is concerned to fill the canvas bur rather place in it what is necessary."

From his early work mostly in painting he moved to print making then small and monumental sculpture. He is noted today for his monumental sculptures in stainless steel, which he began experimenting with in the 1980s, moving into monumental pieces of the material in the 1990s. Hernández Urbán considers the materials as a symbol of modernity and urban life, but also appropriate to Mexican art, especially that of the Mexico City metropolitan area because of its heavy industry. In addition, the material is light, easy to transport, resistant workable into various shapes in large format and as he states "refracts the light of the sun in different matrices and forms."