Michel, Alfonso | Colección

20th Century Mexican

This eccentric painter from Colima was rediscovered only three decades ago, thanks to a number of initiatives that recognized his key contribution to Mexican art history. Born on 14 January 1897, Michel showed an interest in drawing and painting from a very early age. After turning 18 he set out on a number of trips to the USA and Europe, where in 1924 he decided to remain, living between Paris and Berlin.

In Paris, he lived as a bohemian artist in Montparnasse, attended private academies, worked as an illustrator for fashion journals and shared a studio with other Latin-American artists. In 1928 he returned to Mexico and made a foray into filmmaking but just one year later he travelled to Spain to resume his work as a visual artist and exhibited his work in Barcelona. On returning to Mexico in 1930, he became associated with a group of young painters from Jalisco based in Guadalajara, made up by Ricardo Martínez (1918-2009) and Juan Soriano (1920-2006).

Michel was a nomadic wanderer. Dressed in a Moorish djellaba and costume jewellery and carrying a backpack, he spent time in his wealthy family’s coastal coconut plantations and also in its twelfth-century chateau in France. Alfonso Michel died from malaria at the age of 62.