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I am Arturo Estrada.
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Painter
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I came to mexico
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to develop myself in this expressive genre,
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with the enthusiastic support from my parents.
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and i arrived in Mexico City
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at a time that i knew
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the great artists that conform the greatest examples of world art.
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And with their support and encouragement
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i was able to be their assistant and in consequence, worked alongside them.
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My artistic ambiance which i paint
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has been mostly a town, my town
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which i got the chance to know
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since i arrived in Mexico a long time ago
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and i was able to know it in
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the most remote places in Mexico, in the states of
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Michoacán, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracrúz, Colima and Guanajuato.
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I got really carried away when i was a student
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painting and knowing its shapes
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that had been there so long
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and from that point i started to change
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my painting subject to the population of Mexico
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I came to Mexico to study painting because
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I had the drive to become a painter, encouraged by my parents.
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And i had the chance
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to arrive in Mexico City to live with my father's brother and it was here
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that i developed, and
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i, by coincidence found La Esmeralda, a school of painting and sculpture
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and i found out the enrollment conditions.
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I took some of my work as a proof of
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my possibilities of becoming an artist; so i got accepted and i was enrolled.
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What's interesting is that
Lo interesante es que
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asi i found the school, i saw young people that were
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doing what i wanted to do; draw.
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And i discovered a lot of things, there was no tuition fee and the school gave you the materials to keep studying, and of course i was
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very excited.
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And even though i didn't need to pay a fee,
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My parents didn't trust the school, and they didn't want me to be there because the place was horrible.
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Well, i became a student of La Esmeralda, and
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i was lucky enough to find Mexico's greatest muralists there.
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who were some of the teachers of the school,
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amongst them was Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
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And how could i not, taking classes from
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Frida Kahlo, excited to do this kind of job,
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and the practical and academic orientation
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from Diego Rivera, i was driven to do my first work, and
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the first one was under
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the nourishment and overlook from Frida Kahlo,
los auspicios y el cuidado, y la animación de Frida Kahlo,
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in the pulqueria La Rosita, in Coyoacan district.
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First, work discipline.
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A lot of discipline. And then, the motivation, all of them exciting as they may be
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but, with their talks and because of their orientation
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man is the fundamental of any country, and that's what drove me to
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funnel my studies toward social movements
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that i could conceive at that time.
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I don't think there are, or will be, teachers as encouraging
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and non judgmental
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who express limitless teaching.
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I was the first generation
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of artists, of students, who graduated from La Esmeralda
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in 1946.
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Truth is that i
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never thought of becoming a teacher,
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despite my degree indicates it as such.
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Properly adequate to teach and spread the works of visual arts.
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But it was never my idea, i wanted to believe
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i could make a living from my paintings
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painting landscapes, portaits, etcetera
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in 1946
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in 1946,
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depsite having a great preparation, but,
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it was a very difficult time in the cultural development of Mexico, and
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that environment was completely empty.
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and no, despite that huge fame was
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in Mexico's three greats; Diego, Orozco, Siqueiros
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but, ambiance
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so that someone could interest themselves in painting, well no.
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What was the point of me
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studying all that time in La Esmeralda, doing landscapes and portraits. all that. What was it for?
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I did look for a job, i did, no one was interested back then.
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And all the jobs i could do were later on.
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I enjoy a lot,
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that contact i had with the guys
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first, the excitement of getting to know something and disciplining myself.
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Discipline.
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The same thing i felt when i started painting, and
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seeing, and grabbing the future,
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i was thinking of
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always painting in the present.
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So then, of course i was overeager, however, i was always
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extremely disciplined.
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Technique, is the way you can do whatever you want.
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As i finished my studying
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in la Esmeralda, without having,
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well, no one got interested, there wasnt' even
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a seller's market, even if i tried to sell my work, no one was buying it either.
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And it just so happened
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that i saw an ad
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some of my classmates in the same situation saw the ad as well,
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we found out that the great Maestro Orozco we admired so much,
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was looking for some young artists that were willing to
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work on an outdoor mural painting
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that was a good 100 feet in the air and around 1000 feet wide
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completely outdoors.
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Of course knowing
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the importance and transcendace of this Maestro i admired so much and
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knowing his work,
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Of course i asked for the job, and i got it, and so
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i helped to paint under the guidance of
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the Maestro José Clemente Orozco; the mural
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that still stands in
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the Escuela Normal
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in the outdoors theatre.
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Yes, it's still there,
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Everyone in the art field to me,
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have a pretty big imprint on me,
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that human quality, and that interest of discovering the world and painting it
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They were all like that,
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Frida, Diego, Orozco
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and Siqueiros whom i met at the last stage of my learning process.
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In general my work is,
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people, towns
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and the development vehicle in which all of that blossoms, the landscape.
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Usefull objects and
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certain social moments that have left an imprint
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in my mind and i have tried to paint such things.
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I use some of my latest works as an example,
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this pot, great gaping wound left by the Ayotzinapa victims,
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and i have done some works on that topic.
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I think all of them reflect a historic time i've lived through,
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and i have painted all that i could manage.
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Well yes, transcendant or not in the field of painting,
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that's what i wanted to do at that time.
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And i think it was a really good thing since
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i started to have exhibitions
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from a very young age
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and in European countries
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and so,
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with the catalogues i have,
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i think it got a very good critique.
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for the time i was working and reflecting,
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i think they turned out positive, no more, but positive
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enough so that i could continue my work.
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After having such a maervelous opportunity to travel the country,
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i, from a very young age,
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have witnessed social change.
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and the cadences it's had.
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The country has developed, despite having a constitution,
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which undoubtedly
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has changed because of neoliberalism, and i know there are a lot of folks; i believe
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Mexico is really mixed up, despite
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having an absolute conscience.
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it seems there is no one, and nothing that can help us understand the situation.
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Everything stays the same, and i am moved
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by the indifference,
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and in summary, the people
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haven't evolved, and the ones leading the country, desapite having some laws.
no ha evolucionado, y los que nos dirigen a pesar de tener unas leyes,
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a way to run the country, they look the other way.
