page_title: Xavier Guerrero
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Xavier Guerrero / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Small cupola painted by Roberto Montenegro and Xavier Guerrero in the 1920's at the Museo de la Luz located in the historic center of Mexico City
context_page_description: Xavier Guerrero was one of the pioneers of the Mexican muralism movement in the early 20th century. He learned painting working with his father, who worked in masonry and decorating, with evidence that his ability was mostly self-taught. In 1912, he moved to Guadalajara and began painting murals, moving to Mexico City in 1919 just as the muralism movement was about to begin. Most of his work was in collaboration with or subordinate to other painters such as Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, working at the San Ildefonso College, the Secretaría de Educación Pública building and the Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo; however, much of his other work has been lost. While best known for his mural work, his later canvas work is considered to be better.
context_section_description: Xavier Guerrero is one of the most important artists from the state of Coahuila but he is relatively unknown, even in his home state as he did not achieve the level of fame that a number of his contemporaries did. However, he was one of the pioneers of the Mexican muralism movement  along with Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.  In 1919, he signed a petition, along with other artists, requesting that President Venustiano Carranza provide facilities for the creation and promotion of Mexican art, just before what is considered to be the official start of the Mexican muralism movement with the efforts of José Vasconcelos. One reason for his obscurity is that much of his mural work has disappeared, with the largest surviving collections found in Guadalajara and the Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo in the State of Mexico.
  He began to paint murals in Guadalajara, generally with biblical topics, rural landscapes, allegories, and decorative perimeters He created his first mural in 1912 on a building in Jalisco called the Palacio de las Vacas when he was only sixteen years old. From 1913 to 1914 he created a fresco on the ceiling of the Hospital de San Camilo representing the resurrection of Christ. In 1919, he moved to Mexico City to painting the cupola of the former Monastery del Carmen and researched pre Hispanic fresco techniques.
  Another reason for his obscurity is that much of his work was done in collaboration with or in subordination to other artists. He worked with Roberto Montenegro at the former San Pedro y San Pablo monastery on the El arbol de la vida mural and the design of the stained glass windows El Jarabe Tapatío and La vendedora de pericos. He also designed the stained glass window with the seal of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in the same building with Jorge Enciso. In 1921, Guerrero met Diego Rivera and became one of the artists to paint the San Ildefonso College building, then the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and the Anfiteatro Bolivar, mostly done in encaustics.  Under Rivera and Siqueiros, he became one of the painters of the Secretaría de Educación Pública building along with Amado de la Cueva and Pablo O'Higgins. Despite the subordinate position, he was the one to teach Rivera how to prepare walls for fresco work. He assisted on works by José Clemente Orozco, Carlos Mérida, Miguel Covarrubias and Adolfo Best Maugard. With Gabriel Fernández Ledesma he designed the wainscot made of Talavera tiles for the mural work titled Zodiaco in 1921.
  Much of his mural work was done at the Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo, an agricultural college from 1923 to 1927. He worked on the six pediments of the Parthenon building at the same time Rivera was painting the interior of the school's former chapel. The pediments were painted with allegories of humanity's relationship to the fruit of the field, which also contain Communist symbols. These murals were restored in 2006. He also did a twenty two panel mural at the old Director's House, which was demolished in the 1960s. These panels were moved beforehand with five on permanent display at the Museo Nacional de Agricultura on the campus and the others in the possible of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. In total, Chapingo has twenty three fresco panels, one oil portrait, one pencil drawing and sculptured reliefs of his.
  From the 1930s on, his career mostly concentrated on canvas work, which he is considered better at but did not bring him the recognition of his mural work. However, from 1940 to 1942, he worked with David Siqueiros on a mural in Chillán, Chile called Muerte al invasor at the Pedro Aguierre Cerda Library of the Escuela México. He painted the fresco panels called De México a Chile on the lobby of the same building.  They underwent restoration in 2009 but were damaged by an earthquake in 2010. The Chillan murals became a major tourist attraction for the city.
  Later murals also include Motivos mexicanos at the house of José Guadalupe Zuno and El día y la noche at the Ermita Cinema in Tacubaya in the 1950s. He also
caption: Cupola in the Museum of Light painted by the artist with Roberto Montenegro
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