Artists & Designers

Considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón Kahlo, in Coyoacán, Mexico City on July 6, 1907. She grew up in the family home where she was born, later referred to as the Blue House or Casa Azul. Her father was a German photographer who had immigrated to Mexico where he met and married her mother. She contracted polio around age six, which caused a permanent limp.

Mexican painter, draughtsman, and muralist Diego Rivera was born December 8, 1886 in Guanajuato, Mexico. He is known as one of the “The Big Three” (Los Tres Grandes), along with David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco, who were in favor of a single nationalist language that, in theory at least, would accept no influences from abroad.

Mexican painter Jesús Guerrero Galván was born on June 1, 1910 in Tonila, Jalisco, Mexico, to a farming family of Tarascan (Purépecha) origin. As a child he studied drawing in Guadalajara, and began his education as a painter in the Fine Arts School (School of Plastic Arts) in San Antonio, Texas, after moving to the United States with his mother and sister around 1925.

Born April 03, 1903, Lola Álvarez Bravo was recognized for her work as a photographer under the guidance of her husband, Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Her career took off after her divorce in the 1930s, when she was hired by El Maestro Rural magazine. She managed to establish herself in the Mexican art scene through her innovative handling of techniques such as photomontage and collage. She engaged in visual languages that spanned from surrealism to portraiture.

Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo was born on February 4, 1902 in Mexico City. Coming from a family of writers and artists,  he was interested in photography from an early age.

Mexican caricaturist, painter, ethnologist, and art historian Miguel Covarrubias was born on November 22, 1904 in Mexico City. He began his career as an illustrator and writer working in the Secretaría de Comunicaciones (Secretary of Communications, Mexico City). In 1919 he was a draughtsman for street plans and maps and created a series of caricatures for Policromías, a student magazine in 1920.

David Alfaro Siqueiros is deemed one of the three masters of the Mexican muralism movement, along with Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. Born on December 29, 1896 in Chihuahua, Mexico, his family moved to Irapuato, Gunajuato, Mexico in 1902.

Guillermo Meza was a Mexican painter, known for his realist portraits and figures as well his inventive landscapes. Born on September 11, 1917 in Mexico City to an indigenous Tlaxcalan (Tlaxcaltecan) father, Meza's parents had interest in history, literature, and the arts. His surrealist, expressionist paintings often draw from his heritage, such as indigenous mythology, as well as socio-political themes.