Miguel Hernández Urbán
Miguel Hernández Urbán (* 1936 in Tultepec ) is a Mexican painter and sculptor who is known for his metal sculptures made of stainless steel . In 1992 he initiated the first symposium for stainless steel sculptures in his hometown , which to this day also enjoys an international character. He is the Mexican manager of the Asociacion Internacional Eventos de Escultura Monumental , an international association for the promotion of monumental object art .
Life
Hernández Urbán was born in 1936 in Tultepec, a more rural town in the state of México . He has been interested in art and music since childhood and took an active part in musical and artistic events in his hometown.
In 1954 he joined the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Xochimilco and specialized in sculpture. His training was influenced by the Mexican wall painting movement and his teachers such as Ignacio Asúnsolo , Antonio Rodríguez Luna and Luis Ortiz Monasterio, as well as his assistance to David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Chávez Morado . He also received training in painting, worked in Rodríguez Luna's studio and learned from artists such as Javier Arevalo , Luis Nishizawa and Susana Campos . He later graduated from the Academia de San Carlos and received a grant from the French government in 1969, which allowed him to deal with other artistic influences in France. With his work as an artist, especially with his sculptures, he achieved a certain degree of international fame.
Artistic work
Hernández Urbán began his actual artistic work in 1959 as an assistant to the Mexican sculptor Luis Ortiz Monasterio and then worked in 1960 as a technical consultant at the National Autonomous University of Mexico .
During his career, the size of his works changed from small format to huge monuments, which are considered characteristic of his work and which he created worldwide from stainless steel and sometimes from snow. At the beginning of his creative period, however, he not only created sculptures, but also painted in oil , acrylic , tempera , and made engravings on wood and metal ( engravings ) and drawings. He experimented with different styles such as abstract art as well as surrealism and stylized human figures. For example, in 2008 he created the sculpture “La Tehuana”, which can be seen at the main entrance to Tehuantepec in Oaxaca , as a representation of an oversized woman in a region where women play a dominant social role. He also designed theater sets and costumes at times .
Hernández Urbán owes his fame to his oversized works of art made of stainless steel. In the material he primarily uses, he is particularly interested in its malleability and longevity, as well as the fact that sunlight breaks into different shapes and colors through reflection. These lighting effects are considered the credo of this artist. He describes the play of light and space as his constants. His aim is not to fill a canvas , but rather as an idea of infinite possibilities through the objects to create empty space and space and to place them outside in a public space.
Furthermore, the use of stainless steel expresses the close connection between Hernández Urbán and his hometown Tultepec and Mexican art itself. For him, this stainless steel has a clear regional reference because of the surrounding heavy industry . It sees it as a symbol of technical progress in connection with urban modernity, whereby the size of the objects represents a property of the form and the material and should correlate with the magnitude of the (cultural) change.
It is also very important to Hernández Urbán to enter into an international dialogue with other artists of this kind. Since 1992 he has been jointly responsible for the annual symposium for stainless steel sculptures that he initiated in this city, which is considered the first of its kind. Inspired by this pioneering project, the international association for exhibitions with monumental sculptures, the Asociacion Internacional de Eventos Escultura Monumental (AIESM), was created, whose aim is for artists to network and promote art in public spaces . Hernández Urbán is a founding member and is now responsible as a manager for the Mexico area. His works of art can be seen worldwide, for example Los Elementos in Canada, El Origen and Homenaje al Rey in Thailand.
In recognition of his artistic activity, he received various awards such as the first prize at the concurso Nacional de Pintura in Mexico City in 1969 and the Presea Estado de México en Artes Plásticas award in 1987 . 2012 his work under the motto "50 years of work, 75 years of life" with an exhibition of his art at the Museum of Modern Art (Centro Cultural Mexiquense) in was Toluca appreciated . Hernández Urbán is a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana .
Web links
- Miguel H. Urbán at AIESM
- Archive website of the artist ( Memento from June 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Artist's CV
- Video in honor of the artist, Spanish
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Guillermo Tovar de Teresa: Repertory of Artists in Mexico: Plastic and Decorative Arts . Vol. II. Grupo Financiero Bancomer, Mexico City 1996, ISBN 968-6258-56-6 , pp. 150 .
- ↑ a b Susana Villafuerte: La escultura monumental en acero inoxidable, una tradición en Tultepec. In: Artlogie Recherches sur les arts le patrimoine et la litterature de l'Amerique Latine. Retrieved May 23, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Diana Manni: catalogo aiesm 2007. p. 96 , accessed on May 25, 2015 .
- ↑ a b 75-50, exposición homenaje a Miguel Hernández Urbán. In: CONACULTA. March 26, 2012, accessed May 24, 2015 .
- ↑ Leopoldo Ávalos: Crea Tehuana de acero para Oaxaca . In: Reforma . September 2, 2008, p. 15 .
- ↑ AIESM: Directores Y AGENTES. Retrieved May 23, 2015 .
- ↑ Miguel Hernández Urbán, 50 años de trabajo, 75 de vida. In: El Sol de Toluca. March 27, 2012, accessed May 24, 2015 .
- ^ Members of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. Retrieved May 24, 2015 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hernández Urbán, Miguel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mexican sculptor and painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tultepec |