Julio Castellanos was a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 painter and engraver.

Biography

Castellanos matriculated the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1918, where he studied under Saturnino Herrán

Saturnino Herrán

Saturnino Herrán Guinchard was a Mexican painter. His mother's name was Josefa Guinchard. In 1897 he took private drawing lessons in his native city and in 1901 entered the Aguascalientes Academy of Science. He took classes with José Inés Tovilla and Severo Amador, who taught him drawing and...

 and Leandro Izaguirre

Leandro Izaguirre

Leandro Izaguirre was a Mexican painter, illustrator and teacher. He entered the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City in 1884...

, together with Agustín Lazo, Rufino Tamayo

Rufino Tamayo

Rufino Tamayo was a Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, painting figurative abstraction with surrealist influences....

 and Leopoldo Méndez. Afterwards he studied engraving in the United States, where he met Manuel Rodríguez Lozano

Manuel Rodríguez Lozano

Manuel Rodríguez Lozano was a Mexican painter.- Biography :Rodríguez Lozano was born to Manuel Rodríguez and his wife Sara Lozano. He began a military education at the Heroico Colegio Militar, and started a diplomatic service career...

, who influenced his work strongly. Back in Mexico, he participated in the open-air painting schools there, and studied drawing under Adolfo Best Maugard

Adolfo Best Maugard

Adolfo Best Maugard also known as Fito Best was a Mexican painter, film director and screenwriter.- Life :...

. In 1925 he had his first single exhibition in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, and moved to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 to deal with European art. Returned to Mexico, he joined the Teatro Ulises

Teatro Ulises

The Teatro Ulises was an experimental theater, located in the calle de Mesones 42 of Mexico City, that was established around 1927/1928 by Antonieta Rivas Mercado, daughter of the architect Antonio Rivas Mercado, and further members of the group Los Contemporáneos...

 group, and exhibited six paintings in an Los Contemporáneos

Los Contemporáneos

Los Contemporáneos can refer to a Mexican modernist group, active in the late twenties and early thirties, as well as to the literary magazine which served as the group's mouthpiece and artistic vehicle from 1928 to 1931...

' exhibition, that were totally different from his earlier works. His first and only finished two murals he painted at Juan O'Gorman

Juan O'Gorman

Juan O'Gorman was a Mexican painter and architect.-Biography:O'Gorman was born in Coyoacán, then a village to the south of Mexico City and now a borough of the Federal District, to an Irish father, Cecil Crawford O'Gorman and a Mexican mother...

's Escuela Melchor Ocampo (Melchor Ocampo

Melchor Ocampo

Melchor Ocampo was a Mexican lawyer, scientist, and liberal politician.His home state was renamed Michoacán de Ocampo in his honour.-Studies:...

 school), Coyoacán

Coyoacán

Coyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...

, in 1933. A further partly finished mural, he painted in a school in the Colonia Peralvillo of Mexico City, titled
"El ojo enfermo"(the injured eye). Together with Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....

, he was awarded by the Secretaría de Educación Pública

Secretaría de Educación Pública

The Secretaría de Educación Pública is a Mexican federal government authority with Cabinet representation and responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation of national educational policy and school standards in Mexico.Additionally, it has the following responsibilities:*Creation...

 in 1946, the same year, when his wife Zita Basich Leija gave birth to their son Antonio, today a notable sculptor.

Castellanos exhibited his works in Buenos Aires, Paris and New York City, and participated in several group exhibitions in his home country as well as in the United States. He died in shortly after he became director of the department of plastic and fine arts.

Selected works

• "La cirugía casera", 1934
• "El baño de san Juan", 1939
• self portrait,1947
• "El día de San Juan"
• "El Bohío Maya"