Emigdio Vasquez

Art Brokerage: Emigdio Vasquez American Artist: b. 1939-2014. Emigdio Vasquez (1939 – August 9, 2014) was an American artist and muralist. Born in the mining town of Jerome, Arizona, his father worked for Phelps Dodge copper mines. In the early 1940s they moved to Orange, California. In kindergarten at Killefer Elementary, he began developing an interest in art. He copied the drawings in comic books and base them on stories his father told him about the Mexican Revolution. In the late 1950s he took up oil painting. In the mid-1960s, inspired by Diego Rivera, he painted his first mural, in his parents' patio. In 1979 he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. Emigdio earned an Associate of Arts degree from Santa Ana College before transferring to California State Fullerton University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts. In 1979, for his Master’s Degree thesis project, Emigdio painted an 85-foot by 64-foot mural as a tribute to the Chicano working class, complete with figures modeled after his father as a miner and other relatives and friends as field workers and laborers. Vasquez died from pneumonia on August 9, 2014 in Newport Beach, California.