Paola Coda-Nunziante
A fully illustrated in-depth look at the fascinating life of a Spanish artist, sent on a cultural mission by the king of Spain then abandoned by his homeland, who reinvented himself in the US as a muralist, painter and teacher.José Moya del Pino’s life was divided into two completely separate halves; the first one took place in Spain between 1890 and 1925; the second began in 1925 with his trip, without return, to America. This book includes many figures, photographs, illustrations, and details never published before about the life and works of this almost-forgotten artist.Moya del Pino’s life was never dull. After running away from home at age 11, he received acclaim as a book illustrator in Spain and France, then convinced king Alfonso XIII to send him around the world on a cultural mission for the crown, copying all of the works of Velázquez in the Prado Museum of Madrid to bring them to the new world and promote the great art and culture of his home country.Stranded in California when the king’s support faltered as Spain was on the brink of a civil war, he made inroads into the high society of San Francisco to become a sought-out portraitist and muralist. His mural in Coit Tower and many of those painted under the tutelage of the WPA under the New Deal are still viewable in post offices throughout California; for some, such as those covering entire buildings for the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939, only sketches remain. The artist enjoyed friendships with Diego Rivera, Matisse and other prominent artists, and always lived his life fully and with exuberance.Those who knew the first part of Moya del Pino’s life almost completely ignored what happened in the second, to the point that most biographical notes published in Spain end in 1925, as if the painter had disappeared from the universe without a trace. On the other hand, those who shared the second stage of his life, in the San Francisco Bay Area, only knew of his work in Spain that he copied the works of Velázquez and made portraits of Alfonso XIII and the Duke of Alba. This book aims to put an end to these incomplete perspectives, uniting into one biography the artist’s two lives.
