Show Pays Homage to Munoz Olivares’ Work

He’s painted portraits of presidents, taught in major universities and had his work shown in galleries all over Europe. But this year, painter Manuel Munoz Olivares is spending much of his long, hot summer in Oxnard.

Munoz Olivares made the trek to Ventura County from his home in Mexico City to paint a mural in the library of the new South Oxnard Center; his work will depict the history of the area. Tomorrow, he will take a break from painting to attend the opening of his one-man show at the Conejo Valley Art Museum in Thousand Oaks. On display will be nearly 40 examples of Munoz Olivares’ paintings and drawings, which are on loan from the Lodi Gallery in Pasadena.

As a young man, before his painting earned him an international reputation (and a steady living), Munoz Olivares made money as a writer and political cartoonist. At one point, he took a hiatus from painting to study engineering, but most of his 64 years have been devoted to art.

“His work is figurative, working with the Florentine technique--very precise,” says Augusto Lodi, owner of Lodi Gallery. “Peasants are one of his most common subjects, all the people who really reflect the image of Mexico.”

And yet, Munoz Olivares is also a painter of Mexico’s elite ruling class. As the official painter of the Mexican presidency, he has provided the portraits of Mexico’s past eight presidents that hang in Mexico City’s National Gallery.

“It’s interesting to see the contrast in his work, to see how he jumps from one point to another,” Lodi said. His portraits of kings and presidents are, necessarily, formal and dignified. His depictions of peasants, however, are more passionate. One critic wrote that his “minutely detailed style of hyper-realism focuses on the emotions inherent in the ordinary gestures of everyday living.”

“You can see the soul of the people he paints,” Lodi said. “It’s as if they are talking to you.”

Much of Munoz Olivares’ work has been published in book form. The latest, “El Mexico Que Se Nos Va” (“The Disappearing Mexico”) depicts city life through street musicians, cobblers, bird sellers--”the people,” Lodi said, “who are disappearing as Mexico is changing.”

“Manuel Munoz Olivares: Official Painter to the Mexican Presidency,” runs tomorrow through July 30 at the Conejo Valley Art Museum, 191 W. Wilbur Road, Thousand Oaks. Artist’s reception is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow. Museum hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Admission free. Call (805) 373-0054.