Coronel, Pedro (1923–1985)

Pedro Coronel (b. 25 May 1923; d. 23 May 1985), Mexican painter and sculptor. Born in Jerez, Zacatecas, Coronel left in 1940 for Mexico City, where he studied at the National School of Painting and Sculpture (La Esmeralda) until 1945. He taught sculpture there in 1945–1946. In 1946, Coronel traveled to Europe. While living in Paris he studied painting in the studio of Victor Brauner and sculpture with Constantin Brancusi. In later years he was a friend of Sonia Delaunay, the Ukrainian-born painter and designer who was married to Robert Delaunay. Throughout his life Coronel traveled extensively in Mexico, Europe, Africa, and Asia, assembling collections of artifacts from these countries. Coronel returned to Mexico in 1952 and in 1954 had his first important exhibition in the Proteo Gallery, Mexico City, which was very well received and reviewed. From that point on he exhibited regularly in Mexico, the United States, and Europe, most notably in Mexico City at the Gallery of Mexican Art.

Coronel's mature work draws heavily upon the tenets of abstraction while incorporating figural imagery derived from ancient artifacts of Mexico, Europe, Africa, and Asia. His works on canvas are heavily textured and aggressively colored. Sculptures are executed in marble, onyx, and bronze. In 1959, Coronel received the National Prize of Painting; in 1984, he was awarded the National Prize of Plastic Arts.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Justino Fernández, Pedro Coronel: Pintor y escultor (1971), and Exhibition of Paintings by Pedro Coronel: Lunar Poetics (1972).

Sergio Pitol et al., El universo del Pedro Coronel (1981).

Erika Billeter, ed., Images of Mexico (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Torres Arroyo, Ana María. Pedro Coronel: Variación en el color y la forma. Mexico: Círculo de Arte, 2003.

                                       Clayton Kirking