Nicolás Moreno (artist)

Nicolás Moreno (28 December 1923 in Mexico City – 4 February 2012) was a Mexican landscape painter, considered to be one of the best of this genre of the 20th century, as well as heir to the Mexican tradition of José María Velasco and Dr. Atl. Although he was born in Mexico City in 1923, he had early contact with nature, traveling with his grandfather and living briefly in Celaya, Guanajuato. He studied art at the country’s Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas but was temporarily discouraged when he was told that landscape painting was a “minor genre.” His work almost completely focuses on the varied landscapes of Mexico, mostly to document it, including environmental degradation. His landscape work includes that which appeared in over 100 individual exhibitions in Mexico and abroad as well as a number of important murals including those at the Museo Nacional de Antropología.

Nicolás Moreno was born in the Santa Julia neighborhood of Mexico City on December 28, 1923. Despite living in large capital city, he had contact with nature at a very early age traveling with his paternal grandfather who worked as a mule driver. This allowed him to see much of the countryside that surrounded Mexico City at the time. He has further experience with the countryside when his family moved to Celaya, Guanajuato when he was ten. However, he spent only a year there before returning to Mexico City because of political instability.

His family was poor so he had to work, but he took night classes in drawing at La Esmeralda. His talent won him a cash award which allowed him to enter the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (ENAP) studying here from 1941 to 1945. He spent the next five years studying and traveling to various parts of Mexico to paint. He first professor in ENAP was Benjamin Cora, who like many at the time, considered landscape painting a minor genre which temporarily discouraged the painter. One of his later professors, Luis Sahuagún Cortés taught him how to paint oils with a spatula. He also had contact with other contemporary artists such as José Chávez Morado and Raúl Anguiano.

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