"Armando García Nuñez’ work depicts Mexican painting between the colonial period and the Revolution. His uncluttered landscapes embrace rural Mexico; there are spacious valleys and adobe structures under open skies, as in the oil painting, “Grandeza Mexicana.” His graphite drawings focus on details; an arch, a set of steps, or a small group of trees.

He had his first exhibit in 1907; in 1911 he showed a notable collection of small canvases at the Academy of San Carlos. As a result of this showing, interim Mexican president Francisco León de la Barra awarded him a grant to study in Europe. During this period he produced some oils that were altered to mimic the signature of noted Mexican landscape painter José María Velasco. This was to be a turning point in his work. Velasco documented the rural Mexican scene rather than religious and aristocratic subjects that were typical of the colonial period. He painted in the “plein air” style introduced by the Impressionists.

García Nuñez spent time in Barcelona, Madrid and Paris before returning in 1913 to Mexico in the midst of the Revolution.

He became one of Mexico’s great teachers. He taught anatomical drawing and imitation at the National Preparatory School for 30 years. At that time, the traditional method of learning to be an artist was to copy the work of the masters. As a teacher, García Nunez’ paintings were primarily copies of the works of Velasco.

The paintings in this exhibit demonstrate that it was not García Nuñez’ goal to move the vision of painting forward, but rather to revere Velasco’s achievement of producing heroic and meditative paintings of the Mexican landscape."

Info taken from The Monitor newspaper.