page_title: Heriberto Juárez
section_title: Artistry
hierarchical_section_title: Heriberto Juárez / Artistry
caption_attribution_description: Español: Los Juárez / Bronce
context_page_description: Heriberto Juárez was a self-taught Mexican sculptor, known for his depictions of women and animals, especially bulls. As a youth he wanted to be a bullfighter but gave this up when he found he could sell figures he made. While never formally trained, he had over seventy individual exhibitions of his work in Mexico and the United States and his work can be found in prominent public and private collections.
context_section_description: Although he had no formal artistic training, he did learn from sculptor Juan Soriano and from a carver named Juan de la Cruz. However, most of his learning came from trips to different countries, studying the works of the Greeks, Egyptians, Mesoamericans, Henry Moore, Picasso and Rodin .
  Women are depicted with curved shapes, especially to emphasize the maternal in poses that create concave spaces for balance. He recalls “My mother’s live had to be divided among her eight children. I think that is why I like to interpret women in my sculptures. The female figure allows me to express what I admired as a boy: tenderness, strength, femininity, sensuality.” He transferred much of what he learned as a bullfighter to his art, learning as much as he can about his subject before working on the piece. When he creates male forms, they generally resemble Atlas, a horse rider or a matador, using lives and concepts related to force.
  Common elements in his work include pigeons, the human figure, horses and especially bulls. Despite the short list, none of these depictions repeat. All are distinct.  He has particularly depicted bulls in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, textures and colors.  Pigeons come in second place which he generally depicts in simple lines in materials such as bronze, marble and onyx .
  He advocated that Mexican art should reflect Mexican thought and life.
caption: Los Juárez
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