Select Page

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.


In 1945, Carlos Lopez joined the Michigan community at the School of Architecture and Design (now the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design). He was to be the only Latinx professor at the School of Art and Design until 2017, when Omar Sosa-Tzec joined the faculty as a junior professor, As a member of the faculty, Carlos Lopez contributed to the Michigan community by creating art that portrayed the history of the state of Michigan and by inspiring his students each day.


Refine by
 

Filters

Filters