Arturo Estrada Hernández

Arturo Estrada Hernández
Estrada speaking at an event at the Televisión Educativa in Mexico City
Born	(1925-07-30)July 30, 1925 Panindícuaro, Michoacán
Nationality	Mexican
Education	"La Esmeralda"
Known for	painting
Movement	Mexican muralism

Arturo Estrada Hernández (born July 30, 1925) is a Mexican painter, one of a group of Frida Kahlo’s students called “Los Fridos.” Estrada is mostly known for his mural work, which remains faithful to the figurative style and ideology of Mexican muralism. He has created murals in various parts of Mexico in both public and private places, including a 1988 mural found in the Centro Médico metro station in Mexico City. He has also taught classes at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda", where he was a student, since 1948 and continues to give classes there and other venues. He lives and works in Mexico City.

He was born in Panindícuaro, Michoacán. When he was a child he began to learn art at the workshop of Miguel Moreno.

In 1941, at age seventeen he moved to Mexico City to study high school. At the same time, he studied at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" along with Jorge Chávez Carrillo under Diego Rivera, Raúl Anguiano, José Chávez Morado and Frida Kahlo. In 1943, Antonio M. Ruiz became director of La Esmeralda and Estrada moved on to become one of Frida Kahlo’s private students. They were a group of four which also included Arturo García Bustos, Guillermo Monroy and Fanny Rabel. With this group, Estrada began mural painting, working on a wall of a pulque bar called La Rosita, which since has been destroyed.

He continues to live and work in Mexico City.

In 1944, he began to work on his own, best known for his mural work. First he joined a group called the Pintores Jóvenes Revolucionarios, which supported the Mexican muralism movement. In 1944, he collaborated with Diego Rivera on the mosaics at the Anahuacalli Museum and later on the Ciudad Universitaria stadium. He assisted José Clemente Orozco on the exterior mural at the Escuela Normal, in 1953, he assisted Juan O'Gorman with the mosaic “El Aire” at the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Obras Públicas.In 1961, he painted his own mural, an acrylic mural called The Youth of San Luis Potosí and The Revolution at the Casa de Juventud in that city followed by Tríptico de Independencia in Cuautla . He has also created murals for the Museo de Arte Moderno, in various houses in Mexico City, in Oaxaca, Nuevo Laredo and San Luis Potosí. In 1988, he painted the mural Medicina Tradicional y Medicina Contemporánea at the Metro Centro Médico in Mexico City. The mural was inaugurated with the opening of the station in 1988.