Quick Facts
Biography
José Moya del Piño (1891–1969) a Spanish-American painter, muralist and educator. He associated with the Post-impressionists of Spain and the Depression-era muralists in the San Francisco Bay Area. He taught classes at the San Francisco Art Students League, San Francisco Art Institute and the College of Marin.
Biography
José Moya del Pino was born in 1891 in Priego de Cordoba, Spain. He studied art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. Made numerous portraits for the Spanish nobility and bourgeoisie and by 1925, King Alfonso XIII of Spain had appointed Moya director of the "Spanish artistic mission" to foster appreciation of Spanish art and culture in America. Moya and two other distinguished members of the Spanish Court brought over 50 paintings for exhibitions in Philadelphia, New York,Washington D.C., and San Francisco.
The King had given Moya the commission to copy all of the paintings of Velázquez hanging in the Prado Museum in Madrid. Among the paintings collected for exhibition were the 41Velázquez reproductions. Moya had labored for four years on this project: measuring, studying, grinding pigments, and mixing colors according to 17th Century recipes in order to duplicate the original canvases as exactly as possible. In subsequent years, when civil war in Spain threatened the original masterpieces of Velázquez, Moya's work gained in importance.
He moved to San Francisco during the 1930s and taught at the San Francisco Art Students League (a cooperative space featuring an art gallery, art classes, and art supply store founded by fellow artist Ray Strong), The California School of Fine Arts (now called the San Francisco Art Institute) and the College of Marin.
He was known for his portraiture but he also painted murals for post offices around the Bay Area (1936-1941) as well as contributing a mural in the lobby of Coit Tower as part of the Public Works of Art Project in 1934. He also founded the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, California.
José Moya del Pino died in Ross, California in 1969.