Francisco Icaza
(1930 - 2014)

Francisco Icaza (1930 – 2014) 

 

He spent much of his life living in and visiting various countries around the world. He began painting as a child while living as a refugee in the Mexican embassy in Germany. Icaza exhibited his work both in Mexico and abroad in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia and India, most notably at his three major solo exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Modern.   He also painted a mural dedicated to Bertolt Brecht,   La Farándula, at the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca  a focus of controversy when the work was moved and restored in the early 2000s. He painted additional murals for the Mexican Pavilion at the Hemis Fair  in Texas (Urban Flowers); for the Mexican Pavilion at Expo 67  in Montreal, Canada (Canto al Barroco Maya); and for the Mexican Pavilion in Osaka (Repressive Computers) at Expo 70. This last mural is held at the Museo dearie Abstracto Manuel  Felguerez  in Zacatecas City.   He was an active member of the Salon de la Plástica Mexicana and also a member and founder of several important Mexican artistic movements including Los Interioristas (Nueva Presencia), El Salón Independiente, and La Confrontación 66.

 

Legacy

In 2019, a retrospective exhibition of 145 of Icaza's works was presented by the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Aries  in Mexico City, titled "Francisco Icaza: me quiero ir al mar."

 

Further reading

"Contemporary Mexican Painting in a Time of Change" by Shifra M. Goldman (University of New Mexico Press), 1981.

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We have approximately 65 works on canvas and drawings of Francisco Icaza's early work in our collection from the 1960s that we acquired in 1978 when the San Diego Museum deaccessioned these works thru auction.