Rafael Coronel

Rafael Coronel (Oct 24, 1931) is a painter from Mexico He was the son-in-law of Diego Rivera His representational paintings have a melancholic sobriety, and include faces from the past great masters, often floating in a diffuse haze There are some paintings of his own in Mexico and in other countries In what was the convent of San Francisco De Almoloyan y De Asis, located in Zacatecas, there is a museum named after him; in this museum, his vast mask collection is shown

Rafael was more than a teenager who dreamed of becoming a soccer player Although he always liked to draw, he thought that "Art gives no money to eat, and painting is a complement for other jobs" He didn't even know that there were some professional painters

When Rafael went to Mexico City he wanted to be a soccer player, a player for the América, but he promised he would study to become an accountant When he arrived in the capital, he started to like architecture In 1952 he won a painting contest The piece that gave him the victory was the Mujer De Jerez, a piece of art done with crayons, since he had no money to buy better things He won a scholarship of 300 pesos a month After winning the contest he stated: "I betrayed my father, but I've done good for the country"

For the scholarship to be effective, he had to study in some painting school, so he decided to enter to "La Esmeralda", two months later he was expelled for disobeying the teachers The intentions of Rafael during that time were to show the latinoamerican people without garnishing them like Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, or like José Clemente Orozco When you leave the painting alone, the human figure reaches its climax point, to the purest representation of the human being, like the paintings of Rembrandt[clarification needed]

Coronel became a lonely man in 1969 when his wife, Ruth, the daughter of Diego Rivera and Lupe Marín, and mother of his only son, Juan Coronel, died He has had some girlfriends, and he has traveled around the world next to them Traveling helps him to "clear his vision about Mexico and makes my painting instincts, and puts me in front of the canvas with my brush, painting and painting"

Rafael worked 20 years in his uncle´s workshop He said that he has made his best work there He lived in the city of Cuernavaca since the year 1981 In that studio, he says he made the largest plastic production he has achieved Since 1981 he has lived in the city of Cuernavaca, in a house surrounded by a wall full of graffiti that appears to protect a vacant lot

On the occasion of his 80th birthday in September 2011 Fine Arts opened in "retro-futuristic", an exhibition of 109 works that Coronel created 18 that year These works break with earlier work by Coronel, because "in the same figuration, there are some decrepit characters He puts the focus on the end of life, of women and men in old age This is different, because we are used to seeing old age redeemed; in these tables, old age is presented as decline, an aspect never explored", said Juan Coronel Rivera, the son of the artist

All stages in the creative life are represented in Coronel's retrofuturism, not just the time when performing works closely related to Spanish painting, as most of the audience remembers In the collection there are also sculptures, drawings and works that have never been exhibited Retrofuturism also has been presented at the Museo Rafael Coronel in Zacatecas and Monterrey MARCO

Works
He had exposed in different places:

Bienal de San Paulo, Brasil
Castello Sforsesco en Milán, Italia,
Museo real de Arte de Bruselas, Bélgica,
The Contemporaries, en Nueva York, EUA
The Museum of Modern Art en Nueva York, EUA
Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes en México, Mex
Museo de Arte Moderno, México, Mex

1967 January 9 He shows in The Gallery of Modern Art, Phoenix, Arizona, USA He exhibits “Mi abuela” He also collaborates in the “kalikosmia” exhibition, where he presented abstract sculptures made in plastic This was shown in the Museum of Modern Art of Mexico

1968 February 12-March 2 He exhibits in the Gallery of Mexican Art “Rafael Coronel 20 óleos y 100 dibujos del viaje número 13" The exhibition was sponsored by the committee that organized the Olympic games in Mexico He exhibited the familiar portrait and the brothers and inside the drawings Naked of a girl and Man Back in June on “Rafael Coronel Oleos” Exhibition in the Gallery of Mexican Art September 9–30 He exhibits "Oleos de Rafael Coronel" in the Gallery of Mexican Art October He participated on October 4 in La Bendicion The Mexican-Israeli cultural institute gave him a degree of constancy about the 10 trees that were planted in his name

1969 September 8 He received from the governor of Zacatecas, Ruiz González, él "Racimo de Oro" gave by the Vitivinícola of Vergel, SA Company because of his merit as a Zacatecan artist on October 27

1970 November 13- December 9 He exhibits in The Museum of the University of Puerto Rico, “Botero, Coronel, Rodon”

1972 April 24-May 20 He exhibited in the Gallery of Mexican Art "Rafael Coronel 45 nuevas pinturas" September 10–26 he exhibited in the ex temple of San Agustin in Zacatecas in the collective exhibition “5 Zacatecas painters” (Pedro Coronel, Manuel Felguerez, Rafael Coronel, Francisco de Santiago, José de Santiago)

1973 May 9- July 15 He exhibited La rata en el queso 2, Madrugada en la Merced 1, Santa Martha Acatitla: Lourdes; la rata verde, la rata en la mostaza y Tacubaya: la muerte de la libélula

1974 February 15 Exposition in Exposición en The B Lewin Galleries, Beverly Hills, California, EUA: "Rafael Coronel major exhibition" March 15 He received the invitation to participate in the I Bienal Internacional de Pintura Figurativa "The new image of the paint” in Japan (Tokyo and Osaka) Televisa hire him to paint 100 paintings He delivered 117 but these were destroyed as a consequence of the earthquake in 1985

1975 May He donated to the Museum of Modern Art of Mexico City Tacubaya: la muerte de Libélula He exhibited in The B Lewin Galleries, Beverly Hills, California, USA He was invited in the "An Evening the Stars", where he received a diploma

1976 Ines Amor Director of the Gallery of Mexican Art, was sick so it was difficult to go to the gallery and it caused the separation between Rafael and the Gallery He became exclusive painter in Mexico of the Gallery Misrachi, SA

1977 February 19 June- July “collective exhibition” Recent Latín American Drawigs (1969–1976) Lines of vision", sponsored by the International Exhibition Foundation, New York He participated on the Five Figures Piece

1978 May 23 Was the tribute to Pedro Coronel and Rafael Coronel in Zacatecas, Zacatecas; organized by the government and the University Festejos de la IX Feria Nacional Francisco Garcia Salinas declared Mr Rafael Coronel Arroyo as a distinguished student

1987 April 20 He participates in the collective exhibition “Mexico Contemporany Art” in the ITESM campus Mexico City

1988 October 22- December 4 Individual exhibit "II mondo mágico di coronel" en Chiesa di San stae, organized by the Assessorato alla cultura Del comune di Venecia Collective Exhibition “"primer Festival Deportivo y Cultural Rodrigo Gómez" in the Bank of Mexico

1990 January- July He traslades to Zacatecas with Jose Antonio Cruz to collaborate with Alfonso Soto Soria and his team in the Montaje del Museo Rafael Coronel July 5 Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the governor Genaro Borrego Estrada, inaugurated in the San Francisco Convent the “Museo Rafael Coronel” It has 5000 400 pieces prehispanic Mexican masks, 1500 colonial pottery, 200 puppets Rosete Aranda Company and 100 drawings by Diego Rivera On August he came back to Cuernavaca

1991 May 9 Retrospective exhibition at the Mezzanine of the Tower of Petróleos Mexicanos in connection with the book launch Rafael Coronel, edited by PEMEX Retrospective Exhibition "Painter Rafael Coronel" in the Gallery of the Cultural Complex Tonalli Yoliztli Soot

1992 Retrospective and part of his collection entitled "Treasures Mestizos Rafael Coronel" Presented at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Estado de Mexico

1993 – The retrospective exhibition at B Lewin Galleries, Palm Springs, California, In The Palm Springs Desert Museum presents "The Edith and B Lewin Collection" Where Colonel participates with a score of works, including Time and Seller of antiques

1994 February 14-April 29 Was a Retrospective exhibition "17 works of Rafael Coronel" in the International Airport "Benito Juarez" in Mexico City June 7 He was Member of the Academy of Arts Retrospective exhibition presented at the Presidency of the Republic

1996 December 13 He was awarded the "Award Zacatecas 240" by the State Government The National Council for Culture and the Arts, through the National Coordination of Decentralization, organized the retrospective entitled "Works on Paper Rafael Coronel", composed of 67 pieces, including Dog, Death and Self in New York, i which itineraries all states of the Republic for three years, among other places: August Was a retrospective exhibition "Rafael Coronel" The Zacatecanos years

1997 April Group exhibition "Collection Bernard and Edith Lewin Art Museum of Los Angeles County" Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City Coronel introduced Mi abuela, among other works
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