Aurelio Arteta facts for kids
Aurelio Arteta Errasti (born December 2, 1879 – died November 10, 1940) was a Spanish painter. He used different art styles in his work, like Symbolism, Cubism, and Social Realism. He is best known for his large wall paintings, called murals.
Biography
Aurelio Arteta was born in Bilbao, Spain. His father worked as a farmer and a laborer. Aurelio started learning art at the School of Arts and Crafts in Bilbao. In 1894, his family moved to Valladolid because his father needed to find work there.
After 1897, Arteta studied art at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. To help his family, he took on many different jobs. Most of these jobs were related to art, but he also danced in parades as a comparsa.
Thanks to a special grant, Aurelio Arteta was able to study art in other countries. First, he went to Paris in 1902. There, he was inspired by famous artists like Puvis de Chavannes, Gauguin, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Then, in 1906, he traveled to Italy. In Italy, he discovered the works of old masters like Giotto and Raphael.
In the same year, 1906, he returned to Bilbao. He opened his own art studio and held his first art show. In 1911, he helped start the Basque Artists' Association.
In 1922, after showing his art in several exhibitions, Arteta painted his first murals. These were for the new offices of the Banco de Bilbao in Madrid. He painted twelve frescoes, which are paintings done on wet plaster. These murals showed the history of the Basque Country and the banking world. From then on, he became famous mainly for his murals. His next big mural project was for a chapel in Logroño. He used designs made by Ricardo Bastida for this work.
In 1924, Aurelio Arteta became the Director of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. However, he quit three years later. This happened because the city of Bilbao did not approve of some art pieces he had bought for the museum. Many smart people in Spain supported him. This event led to people criticizing the cultural rules of the government at that time. Arteta continued to show his art and won several awards.
When the Spanish Civil War began, Arteta was working as a professor in Madrid. He supported the side that was fighting for the Republic. Because of this, he had to move to Barcelona, passing through Valencia. In 1938, he left Spain and went to Biarritz, France. In 1940, it looked like France might be taken over by the Nazis. So, he decided to move to Mexico to live in safety.
When he arrived in Mexico, he created his last major artwork. These were decorations for the dining room of Indalecio Prieto, a well-known person. In November of that year, after his friend Julián Zugazagoitia passed away, Arteta and his wife were going to the countryside to cope with their sadness. Sadly, they were both killed in a streetcar accident in Coyoacán.
See also
In Spanish: Aurelio Arteta para niños
