Pedro Linares’s full name was Pedro Liners Lopez who was born in 29 June 1906 at Mexico City. He was generally known for concept Alebrijes. He won the national prize for arts and science at 1990 Pedro Linares started his career as a Judas figures maker and later on Alebrijes was made in 1936 when he was 30 years old. He stated it as: He fell ill and saw strange clouds, trees, forest, animals, and rocks converting into different weird creatures when he was unconscious in his bed dreaming.
Later on he transferred those sceneries into his sculptures that became famous internationally. His work is now displayed at different museums in the world. Alebrijes are colorful fantasy and mythical creations that means imaginary and fantasy or unreal in English.
Also Read: Plato’s Closet or Plato’s Dresser
All of the members of Linares family are one of the best known practitioners of specific craft Calaveras and it has started since 18th century. His sons and grandsons are continuing his craft and innovating it. His work is sold internationally all of the world.
Calaveras is actually sort of sculpture made up of rock and cardboard and. Now these sculptures are specially made as the decorative items for various festivals and celebrations such as burning of Judas, holy weeks, day of dead, etc.
generated more than $4 million, in 2022 alone.
Pedro Linares’s Early life:
He spent early years of his life at Guanajuato Mexico. He learned to paint by watching his mother’s embroidery, other artists and farmers and also when he was teen he lived with his aunt and spent some time at a school run by priest who had painting experience. When he finished his high school he started working as a full time painter
Under appreciated during his lifetime:
He became an orphan at a very young age and started working as a child laborer. He was also trained as a tailor but was not able to earn much through it.
You can estimate the level of under appreciation from here that his work was purchased by the collector the first time when he was 35 years old and 50 years later he was recognized as an important artist and cultural figure and by then he was already dead for a decade
Family business of Pedro Linares
The family business of Pedro Linares was cardboard manufacturing business. The farmers would need boxes to ship the food during harvest so they used to provide them boxes. They used to draw on customers boxes which also somehow influenced his artwork
Interesting Facts you would love to know!!
- The mother and grandparents of Pedro Linares were also artist
- The world famous film Coco of Pixer portrayed Alebrijes as spiritual guides
- After a British producer Judith Bukowski in 1975 made a documentary on Pedro Linare Lopez the tradition developed significantly
- The name of the Linares’s three sons who took his art and broadened it are Enrique, Felipe, and Miguel and the grandsons name are Ricardo, Leonardo, and David.
- He is also a developer of Fiesta accouterments, traditional and from folk art forms.
- At 29th June 2021 also Google celebrated 115th birthday of Pedro liners Lopez, the Mexican artist.
- Pedro Linares was 30 years old when he invented his art
- The invention of his master art was an accident
- It was made when he fell sick and dreamed about some weird stuff and later on converted that memory into an unknown, new, and unique art.
- The highest decoration and artesian award by Mexican government is The National arts and science award and Linares got it at 1990.
- Pedro Linares is the most famous artist at the time of Calaveras miniatures and Holy week Judas for his two genres Calaveras which means animated skeleton and Alebrijes which means imaginary creatures.
- Linares work was recognized internationally when he made life size skeleton figures for Olympic athletes. Dolones Olmedo used those skeleton on Olympics in Mexico in 1968
- His art was named Alebrijes because according to Linares in his dream the creature he saw were screaming louder and louder: Alebrijes, Alebrijes, Alebrijes….
- After his success he was also invited to USA and Europe
- If we Specify things more: He saw a mule with butterfly wings, hare with bull horns, and lion with eagle head.
- The work Linares has done for Diego Rivera is currently shown in the Mexico City museum Anahuacalli.
- His children and grandchildren were named synonymous names because of the love their for Linares artwork.
- Pedro Linares was the first artist in Mexico referred as the first class artisan.
- On January 25th 1992 petrol liners diet due to stomach ulcer
- He lived 85 years in this world and passed.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Pedro Linares belongs to which country?
Pedro Linares belongs from Mexico City.
Q: What is the reason of Pedro Linares’s death?
Pedro Linares died Pedro due to a serious disease known as ulcer stomach.
Q: What is the reason of Pedro Linares fame?
Pedro Linares is famous due to the invention of mythical papermaker animal figures known as Alebrijes.
Q: How many kids does Pedro Linares have?
Pedro Linares had three sons named Enrique, Felipe and Miguel.
Q: What does Alebrijes mean in English?
The meaning of Alebrijes in is imaginary and fantasy and that is what Alebrijes sculptures represent as an art.
Pedro Linares featured by other personalities
- The doodle designer Emily Barrera stated about linare’s art that:
Alebrijes and cartonería are very iconic and representative of Mexican culture. I was delighted to create a whimsical alebrije for Pedro Linares’ Doodle. It also felt really rewarding to do something that is strongly tied to Mexico, making me feel more connected to my country. I find it very magical and satisfying to make an alebrije from scratch, using your imagination, several simple household materials and your hands to make a physical object. Working on this alebrije made me admire even more the beautiful work of all the cartoneros in Mexico.”
- Google doodle’s blog stated that:
“Today’s Doodle celebrates the 115th birthday of a Mexican artist who turned his dreams into reality, Pedro Linares López. His peculiar yet playful animal sculptures known as alebrijes are beloved worldwide as unique products of Mexico’s folk art tradition. … Thank you, Pedro Linares López, for showing us the power of imagination!”
- According to Diego Rivera nobody else might have fashioned the unusual figures he mentioned
- Art history professor Manuel Aguilar told to Los angeles Times at 2016 that
“It’s the most authentic, the most true art of the Mexican people. It is the spirit of the artist that is embedded in those pieces.”
- In 2015 Estil Maxicano told that Ricardo Linares tild him that:
“Ricardo Linares told Estil Mexicano in 2015, “I began to be interested in Alebrijes at the age of 8, it interested me because within me there was a lot of curiosity. My father and my grandfather always asked me to help them and I helped paint, I started doing the simplest thing, which was a toy store, masks, judas, skulls, among others. My first Alebrije… I don’t have it anymore. I sold it to a teacher named Eva Martínez, a collector of popular art, one day while visiting my grandfather’s workshop she saw my piece, she knew it was my first Alebrije and she asked me to sell it to her and I sold it to her. Years later, he invited me to his house and showed me the place where he had it, from there I felt something very beautiful and I really liked this work and I started, I began to create.”
- Mexican folk art guide said that
“Pedro Linares’ work sold locally for many years counting customers like Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo until a documentary film made by Judith Bronowski in 1975 gave him international fame.”
- According to Fowler Museum:
“You have these impulses in Mexican traditional art forms of folks working out wild animals and amazing creatures. There’s connections that go back to pre-Columbian-like aesthetics and ideas of the supernatural. There’s deep, deep roots.”
- In 2018 Eli Barta wrote:
“Nowadays these fantastic creatures are being manufactured by both men and women. Don Pedro’s wife only helped, but his three sons Enrique, Felipe and Miguel learned the art from their father. Now, in Miguel Linares’s family, it is different: his wife Paula García makes alebrijes and many other items such as calaveras or piñatas and has herself been creating figures, generally on her own, for more than fifteen years. Her two daughters, Elsa and Blanca Estela, and her son Ricardo, have also learned the art of making cardboard figures. Blanca got married and abandoned the art for a time, but a few years later she separated and went back to her parents’ home and the craft.”
