The works of renowned sculptor Miguel Miramontes Carmona, a longtime Chapala resident who died in October of last year at the age of 97, will be exhibited at the Centro Cultural Gonzalez Gallo, with the inauguration slated for Saturday, May 28, noon.
Miramontes was raised in a poor family and at a young age learned trade skills as a tailor, silversmith and artisan of religious figures. He was also an avid sportsman who practiced boxing and had a short career as a professional soccer player.
At the age of 29 he emigrated to the nation’s capital where he enrolled at the prestigious San Carlos Art Academy. Returning to his native city in the early 1950’s, he joined the academic staff at the University of Guadalajara’s newly established School of Plastic Arts to found and head the sculpture department for three decades.
During the early years of his long career as a master sculptor, he rubbed elbows with all stars of Mexico’s 20th Century art movement such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Following his retirement in 1984, Miramontes and his family settled in Chapala. The sculpture studio set up at their Las Redes home became a sanctuary for continuing creative endeavors to the last days of his life.
His artistic legacy comprises more than 50 sculptures that grace public spaces in the Guadalajara metro area alone.
Miramontes also created the bronze statue of composer Pepe Guizar standing at the north end of Chapala’s Avenida Madero, the Niños Héroes bas-relief monument in the median strip opposite city hall, and the sculpture Los Sobrevivientes (the survivors) installed at the entrance of the Centro Cultural de Ajijic.