Carlos Lopez

Carols Lopez (Cuban, 1908-1953) collection available at the Michigan Art Gallery.

Painter Carlos Lopez was born in Havana, Cuba on May 24, 1908, but he spent most of his early years in Spain. In the year 1919, at age 11, he moved to the United States where he lived until his early death at age 44. Carlos Lopez spent a year studying in Chicago and then attended the Detroit Art Academy for three years. During the Great Depression, Lopez found work as a muralist with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. According to the website The Living New Deal, Carlos Lopez painted numerous murals throughout Michigan. For example, in 1938 Lopez painted Plymouth Trail in the post office in Plymouth, Michigan. The painting portrays the historical role of the stagecoach in transportation and mail delivery in Michigan’s history (Vargas). Not only did he make a valuable artistic contribution to the state of Michigan but his images helped shape its history and later, that of the University of Michigan.