Leonel Maciel

Biografía

Leonel Maciel was born on March 21, 1939 and began his artistic career in 1950. Like many others of the Mexican Rupture Generation decided to abandon muralism for freedom of expression. Raúl Anguiano classified him as “one of the greats” calling him one of his disciples.Maciel defines himself as a hedonistic painter who believes that suffering should not rule human existence, but rather eroticism, celebration, games, laughter or in other words, the happiness of living. He tried to convey that through his paintings. Maciel is quoted by the phrase "What is beautiful in life is sometimes expressed in color, other times in movement and sometimes in the meaning of objects, plants or animals." Even serious things can generally have elements of irony. Maciel made several series based on the Passion of Christ, but the images are not always solemn as in traditional representations. His works generally contain a series of elements that are often saturated in color and that are related to Magical Realism. Maciel has changed styles frequently and sometimes abruptly. Sometimes working with works that show African influence, others the traditional and academic style and others using symbolic coloring and even using hyper-realism. One of the reasons for this is the experience he lived traveling, for example, the inclusion of Asian elements in his work after traveling to that continent in the 90's. His work varies from the abstract to the figurative; experimenting with materials because of his academic background.