Francisco Icaza, Mexican painter (born 1930)

Francisco Icaza was a Mexican artist best known for his drawings about his travels and his oil paintings. He spent much of his life living in and visiting various countries around the world. He began painting as a child while living as a refugee in the Mexican embassy in Germany. Icaza exhibited his work both in Mexico and abroad in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia and India, most notably at his three major solo exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. He also painted a mural dedicated to Bertolt Brecht, La Farándula, at the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca, a focus of controversy when the work was moved and restored in the early 2000s. He painted additional murals for the Mexican Pavilion at the HemisFair in Texas ; for the Mexican Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada ; and for the Mexican Pavilion in Osaka at Expo '70. This last mural is held at the Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez in Zacatecas City. He was an active member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and also a member and founder of several important Mexican artistic movements including Los Interioristas, El Salón Independiente, and La Confrontación 66.