Luis Nishizawa

Luis Nishizawa (February 2, 1918 – September 29, 2014) was a Mexican artist known for his landscape work and murals, which often show Japanese and Mexican influence. He began formal training as an artist in 1942 at the height of the Mexican muralism movement but studied other painting styles as well as Japanese art. In addition to painting canvases and murals, including murals made with ceramics, he was a professor of fine arts at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México from which he received an honorary doctorate. The State of Mexico, where he was born, created the Museo Taller Luis Nishizawa to honor and promote his life’s work.

Luis Nishizawa Flores was born on February 2, 1918 at the San Mateo Ixtacalco Hacienda in the Cuautitlán municipality of the State of Mexico. His father, Kenji Nishizawa, was Japanese and his mother, María de Jesús Flores, was Mexican. Since he was a child, he was introverted and solitary, spending his childhood tending cattle for his family. The family moved to Mexico City in 1925, where Nishizawa learned to create jewelry and studied music with a teacher named Rodolfo Halfter.