Eppens with one of his monumental paintings, circa 1961.
ATVM files
The painter, muralist, and sculptor Francisco Eppens
Helguera (1913-1990) was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Francisco attended the
Fine Arts Academy of San Carlos ("Escuela de Artes Plásticas") in Mexico City.
His work was influenced by the Nationalist ideas of the first painters from the
artistic movement called the Mexican School of Painting, or Mexican Renaissance.
Eppen's works are figurative, and interpret reality in a symbolic way. His
smaller paintings are oil on canvas, and oil on masonite. His monumental outdoor
murals use colored glass tiles. The artist's works show a parallelism to the
works of his friend, and colleague Jorge González Camarena.
In Mexico,
the artist was part of Second Generation of the Mexican School of Painting
("Escuela Mexicana de Pintura"). He was a member of the National Front of the
Arts ("Frente Nacional de las Artes Plásticas"), and the group "Integración
Plástica."
Throughout his career, Eppens earned several coveted awards,
such as the first prize in a national contest to produce the exterior murals for
the building of the Mexican party (PRI), in 1963. He was awarded third prize in
an international contest with a theme about peace, "Por la Paz y el
Humanitarismo en Contra de la Amenaza de Guerra Nuclear", organized by the
Russian Ministery of Culture in 1986. He received an honorific mention in the
international contest (A United Hemisphere), "Un Hemisferio Unido", organized by
the Modern Art Museum of New York, in the USA, and was presented the
Distinguished Service Award in the Seventh Congress of the Aerophilatelic
Federation of the Americas, in 1973.
Francisco's works have been
displayed in many exhibits, for example, the Museum of Modern Art of New York in
1930, the Museum of the Fine Arts Palace (INBA), in Mexico City, as well as in
the Cultural Institute Cabañas, in Guadalajara, Mexico, both in
1987.
Eppen's works are included in public collections such as in the
Skissernas Museum in Lund, Sweden, the Museum of Contemporary Art, at the
Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM), the PRI building in Mexico
City, the building of the National Institute of Nuclear Research in Salazar,
Mexico State, the Civic Square of the "Bruno Pagliai" Industrial Park in the
city of Veracruz, and the Telegraph Building in the city of Zacatecas,
Mexico.
The artist's works are referred in various books such
as: -Bertelly, Carlo, "Mosaics", Gallery Books, New York City, USA,
1988. -Enciclopedia Británica, 15th Edition, Volume 12, William Benton
Publisher, (1943-1973), Helen Hemingway Benton Publisher, London,
1973-1974. -Reed, Alma, "The Mexican Muralist", Crown Publishers Inc, New
York, 1960. -Rodríguez, Antonio, "A History of Mexican Mural Painting",
Thames and Hudson, London, 1969. -Tibón, Gutierre, "Enciclopedia de México",
Volume 3, Institute of the Enciclopedia de México, 1968. -Tovar de Teresa,
Guillermo, "Repertorio de Artistas de México", Fundación Cultural Bancomer,
A.C., México, 1995. -Valdiosera Berman, Ramón, "Francisco Eppens", Colección
de Arte 42, Dirección General de Publicaciones, UNAM, Mexico, 1988. -The
International Who is Who of Intellectuals, Vol 2-3, International Biographical
Center, Cambridge, England, 1981.
"Arquitectura Colonial Prehispánica" (Pre-Hispanic
Colonial Architecture)(C), Francisco Eppens, 1984, oil on canvas, 82 x 91 cm.
Private collection.