AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

The work Helguera created in Spain has almost completely disappeared. Most of it was created for the Editorial Araluce, which specialized in comic books and other publications for children. It is believed that the majority of this work was done in gouache.

He admired the Mexican artists Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, and Tamayo. Being very unassuming, he never considered himself an artist or tried to exhibit his original paintings.

Helguera would travel to the site of each painting and study the landscape, the local fauna and flora, as well as the customs and legends of the locality. He worked with deliberate brush strokes, but the overall impression would be of a carefully crafted work with a painstaking attention to detail. The structures of his paintings create a sense of grand scale, and his heroic themes capture the imagination of the viewer.

While in Mexico, Helguera turned to the nationalistic fashion of his day, usually portraying an idealized image of the more prosaic reality of Mexican life. Every man was a hero, and every woman a beauty, sometimes depicted with Arian features. His romantic approach to the figure gave his paintings the heroic impact that eventually made him famous.

COLLECTIONS

Museo Soumaya
Private Collections

CHRONOLOGY

1910 Born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Moves to Mexico City
1912 Moves to Cordoba, Veracruz, Mexico
1917 Moves to Spain. Attends Escuela de Artes y Oficios and the Academia de San Fernando.
1928 At 18, becomes professor of visual arts in Bilbao, and works for Editorial Araluce
1938 Moves to Mexico
1939 Becomes exclusive artist for Cigarrera la Moderna, S.A. de C.V.
1939 Paints La Fiesta del Istmo and Poco a Poquito
1940 Paints La Leyenda de los Volcanes
1971 Dies December 4th

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. “Jesus Helguera y su Pintura, Una Reflexion.” Elia Espinosa.
2. “Jesus Helguera” Imprenta Galas De Mexico.1989.
3. “Jesus Helguera, el Calendario como Arte.” Turok, Martha, Secretaria de Educacion Publica, Mexico.
4. “La Leyenda de los Cromos. El Arte de los Calendarios Mexicanos del Siglo XX en Galas de Mexico” Museo Soumaya, 2000.
5. “Mexicanos en su Tinta: Calendarios.” Quinones, Isabel. Mexico, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, 1994.
6. “Historia General de la Cultura.” Ferrandis Torres, Manuel. Madrid, Estades Artes Graficas, 1964.
7. “La Unidad Nacional y los Nacionalismos Espanoles” Ramos Oliveira, Antonio. Mexico, Editorial Grijalbo, 1970.
8. “La Espana del Siglo XX” Paris, Librería Espanola, 1966. Tunon de Lara, Manuel.
9. “La Pintura Espanola” Encina, Juan de la. Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1982.
10. “Historia del Arte Espanol” Gaya Nuno, Juan Antonio. Madrid, Editorial Plus Ultra, 1973.
11. “Breve Historia de la Pintura Espanola” Lafuente Ferrari, Enrique, Madrid, Editorial Tecnos, 1953.
12. “La Vie des Grands Peintres Espagnols” Deslandres, Ivonne, Paris, Albin Michel, 1965.
13. “La Peinture Espagnole” Lasaigne, Jacques. Ginebra, Skira, 1952.
14. “A History of Spanish Painting” Post, Chandler Rathfon, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, 1958 (Harvard Radclife, Fine Art Series).
15. “Evolution de la Peinture Espagnole des origines a Nos Jours” Serullaz, Maurice. Paris, Horizons de France, 1947.
16. “La Pintura del Siglo XX en Espana.” Sinopoli, Pedro. Santa Fe, Universidad Nacional del Litoral- Institucion Social, 1952.