Luis Nishizawa

Art Brokerage: Luis Nishizawa Mexican Artist: b. 1918-2014. Luis Nishizawa (February 2, 1918 – September 29, 2014) was a Mexican artist known for his landscape work and murals, which often show Japanese and Mexican influence. He began formal training as an artist in 1942 at the height of the Mexican muralism movement but studied other painting styles as well as Japanese art. In addition to painting canvases and murals, including murals made with ceramics, he was a professor of fine arts at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México from which he received an honorary doctorate. The State of Mexico, where he was born, created the Museo Taller Luis Nishizawa to honor and promote his life’s work. Nishizawa was a painter, engraver, graphic artist, sketch artist and ceramicist. His techniques include drawing, watercolor and ink. Most of his works depict landscapes of the central highlands of Mexico such as the Valley of Mexico, areas in Morelos, Guanajuato, Puebla and the State of Mexico. He is considered to have been one of Mexico’s best landscape artists, known for his paintings of volcanoes. Some of his more important canvases include Paisaje: Valle de México (1947), Paisaje de Yagul (1976) and Pátzcuaro (1960) where the blending of this Mexican and Japanese heritage and training are evident. His works have been exhibited in the Museo de Arte Moderno for over forty years, but most of his works can be found in the permanent collection of the Museo Taller Nishizawa. He created murals, paintings, drawings, ceramic and glass pieces and sculpture. His works can be found in the permanent collections of the Centro Cultural Mexiquense in Toluca, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Toluca, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, the Museo de la Estampa and the Museo Carrillo Gil, the Engraving Museum in Bulgaria, the Culture Museum in Yokohama, the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto and the Shinanu Museum in Nagano. His works are also held in private collections in Mexico, Japan and the United States. Nishizawa painted his first major mural “El aire es vida y la salud es la mayor riqueza” at the Centro Medico Siglo XXI, with another shortly after in 1969 at the Hospital General de Zona No. 4 in Celaya, Guanajuato with the name of “El Nacimiento de la Vida” done with high fire ceramics. One of his important works is a ceramic mural done in a Keisei metro station in Japan in 1981. Listings wanted.