If there’s someone who’s been able to depict the colors of Mexico, it is Arturo Estrada, a student of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera who turns 101 years old today. This is his story.
The dreamscapes of Arturo Estrada
Arturo Estrada’s painting has fascinated diverse audiences. Its fluidity, forcefulness and color turn his works into windows from which to look out into a dream. His figures metamorphose; his canvases dance to the melody of life. Fruits are people, people are trees; a flower is a star, a bird and a stone.
Estrada allows himself to be captivated by the natural world. He permits his mind to transform it, delivering it — lovingly crafted — to our eyes and hearts.
His origins
Arturo Estrada Hernández was born in 1925 in Panindícuaro, a town nestled in the mountains of Michoacán. The artist claims to have known his vocation from the very first moment: to be a painter. This journey began with his observations of the countryside, the clouds and the animals. He watched leather transform into footwear in the family shoe shop and, above all, flipped through books and newspapers, copying photographs and illustrations he found within their pages.
Part of his education took place during the Cristero War, when Catholic worship was forced underground. While still a child, he became an apprentice to the religious sculptor Miguel Moreno, from whom he learned the craft of carving religious effigies in wood and received his first painting lessons. Some of his early works were altarpieces and biblical scenes. At age 15, already with an established path in art, he moved to Mexico City to study formally.
La Esmeralda
Arturo Estrada entered the School of Painting and Sculpture of the Ministry of Public Education, known as La Esmeralda. The institution, which had a notable social mission, was dedicated to training artists and provided them with all the necessary tools. Meaning, in addition to being free, it covered the cost of materials and offered scholarships and other incentives.
In 1943, painter Antonio Ruiz, nicknamed “El Corcito,” became the director of La Esmeralda and invited his friends — artists of great renown — to teach at the school. This was how Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera came to head the courses in Pictorial Initiation and Mural Painting, respectively. Estrada enrolled in both courses, where he developed a close friendship with the couple, one that would leave a lasting mark on his life and his painting.
‘Los Fridos’
Amusing and dedicated, Frida Kahlo was an unusual teacher who quickly won the affection of her students. When her health declined, the group followed her to the garden of the Casa Azul (the Blue House). There, they established a painting workshop, led by their mentor.
Alongside Kahlo’s other students, Arturo Estrada painted his first mural at the pulquería La Rosita in Coyoacán. Commuting to that town from Mexico City was not easy, so the number of students dwindled until only the four known as “Los Fridos” remained. Along with Fanny Rabel, Arturo García Bustos and Guillermo Monroy, Arturo Estrada was a staple presence at Casa Azul for more than 10 years.
Kahlo and Rivera’s disciples painted murals in the auditorium of the Casa de la Madre Soltera and in the banquet hall of the Hotel Posada del Sol (this time featuring only the work of Estrada, Monroy and García Bustos).
Estrada as a teacher and emerging artist
Arturo Estrada balanced his creative career with teaching at La Esmeralda for more than four decades. He started as a professor shortly after graduating, and over the years he taught classes in oil and tempera, figure drawing and mural painting. In 1983, he was named director of the school, a position he used to elevate its educational offerings to a bachelor’s degree level.
From very early on, his solo work was widely celebrated, a recognition that opened valuable doors for him both at home and abroad. His experience as an assistant on murals by José Clemente Orozco, Juan O’Gorman and Diego Rivera qualified him to take on major artistic challenges.
For the SCOP Center, he designed the stone mosaic “El Aire” (“The Air”). He also received commissions for the mural “Tríptico de la Independencia” (“Independence Triptych”) in Cuautla, Morelos, and the decoration of the Nuevo Laredo Water Treatment Plant, crafted in Italian mosaic.
After participating in numerous collective exhibitions, he presented his first solo show in 1955 at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. The centerpiece of the exhibition was the painting “Vida-Muerte de Frida Kahlo” (“Life-Death of Frida Kahlo”), which he had painted from a sketch made at his teacher’s funeral. Both Diego Rivera and Juan O’Gorman published positive reviews of the exhibition, which was also praised by Miguel Covarrubias and Doctor Atl.
Establishing a reputation for quality
In 1957, Marcel Duchamp visited the studio that Estrada shared with other artists in Mexico City. Following this encounter, the Frenchman supported the Michoacán native’s candidacy for the William and Noma Copley Foundation fellowship, for which he served as a juror.
Thanks to this support, Estrada traveled to Europe, where he immersed himself in Renaissance art and the avant-garde, and spent time with fellow fellowship winners such as Max Ernst and Roberto Matta. The following year, he was invited to various cities in East Germany and the Soviet Union, traveling from Russia to Armenia on a study and networking trip.
During the 1960s, he was called upon to paint murals at the Casa de la Juventud in San Luis Potosí, the Capilla Morelos in Nocupétaro and the National Museum of Anthropology, where he depicted the festivities of the Virgin of Juquila, Oaxaca, in the work “Pedimento o Manda” (“Petition or Vow”). He also painted several works for the church of San Andrés in his native Panindícuaro.
In 1988, Estrada created “Medicina Tradicional y Medicina Contemporánea” (“Traditional Medicine and Contemporary Medicine”). Located at the Centro Médico station of the Mexico City Metro, this mural is viewed daily by thousands of people.
Arturo Estrada today
At 101 years old, Arturo Estrada experiences art with a profound love. Recent exhibitions of his work have drawn crowds who never cease to marvel at his ingenuity. In 2024, he received the Gold Fine Arts Medal (Medalla Bellas Artes de Oro), awarded by the government to the most notable figures in Mexican creation. Humble, passionate and playful, the painter still enjoys life with an enthusiasm that shines through each of his brushstrokes.
Lydia Leija is a linguist, journalist and visual storyteller. She has directed three feature films, and her audiovisual work has been featured in national and international media. She’s been part of National Geographic, Muy Interesante and Cosmopolitan.
