Horse With Two Riders
Large Outdoor, indoor patinated bronze sculpture 1974
Artist signed, edition 2/6. Light blue green patina.
Deaccessioned from the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
This is a life size large sculpture for indoor or outdoor. The sculpture is hollow the horse weight over 300 pounds. The two riders are not affixed to the horse, so they can be removed for shipping weight about 150 pounds each. The total weight of the entire sculpture is unknown, but is estimated to be over 600 pounds.
Heriberto Juárez (March 16, 1932 – August 26, 2008) was a self-taught Mexican sculptor, known for his depictions of women and animals, especially bulls. As a youth he wanted to be a bullfighter but gave this up when he found he could sell figures he made. While never formally trained, he had over seventy individual exhibitions of his work in Mexico and the United States and his work can be found in prominent public and private collections.
Juárez was born in San Juan Teotihuacán, the modern town near the archeological site of the same name north of Mexico City.
As a child, he reproduced in clay the pre Hispanic figurines he found in the countryside. His life since very young, was tied to livestock. As a boy he would lead his father's bull down the main street to water, even though the animal weighed over 800 kilos, proud he could do this. He also had his own horse on which he took long rides. He lived close to the slaughterhouse and some of his friends jumped the fence to fight the bulls. He participated as well and decided to become a bullfighter. As such he was gored several times, once seriously, which resulted in two weeks in the hospital. This led his family to oppose this activity but Juárez was stubborn and continued. It was only when he was stuck in Guadalajara without money for food, he decided to change. Bored, he made a clay figure of Lorenzo Garza, a noted Mexican matador. His friends were surprised by its quality and suggested he sell it, which it did, quickly. It was followed by many more and helped him to survive.
He began his art career in 1961 and since then has had over seventy individual exhibitions and participated in over forty collective ones. These include MACAY in Mérida (2008), Jockey Club of Mexico (2006), Museo de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público in Mexico City (2005), Townsend Gallery in Los Angeles (2002), Galería Arroyo de la Plata in Zacatecas (2002), Elaine Baker Gallery in Boca Raton (1999), Museo de Irapuato in Irapuato (1998), Cámara de Diputados in Mexico City (1996), Mexico City Airport (1994), Robert Brady Museum in Cuernavaca (1993), PEMEX (1991), Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (1990, 2007), Tec de Monterrey, Campus Estado de México (1989), Centro Cultural Mexiquense (1989), Museo de Arte Moderno (1988), Galería Misrachi in Mexico City (1988,1992), Salón de la Plástica Mexicana (1986), Machorro Gallery in Houston (1982), Premrou Gallery in New York (1981), Museo de Arte e Historia in Ciudad Juárez (1978, 1984), Mexican Consulate in San Antonio (1976), Museo de Charreria in Mexico City (1974), Museo de Bellas Artes in Toluca (1974), Centro Deportivo Israelita in Mexico City (1971), National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City (1970), Museo Michoacano in Morelia (1970), Casa de la Paz in Mexico City, (1979), Casa de la Cultura in Morelia (1968), Casa del Lago, Mexico City (1968), Galeria Tasende in Acapulco (1968), Escuela National de Artes Plásticas (1965), Galería Excelsior in Mexico City (1963), O.P.I.C in San Antonio (1963), Galería 1567 in Mexico City (1962) and the Galería Chapultepec in Mexico City (1962) .
His work can be found in the Rali Foundation museum in Chile, Uruguay and Israel, The Art Museum in Boca Raton, Florida, the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, the JP Morgan Bank in Mexico and the J. Walter Thompson Art Collection in New York. A piece called "Caballo con jinete" can be found at the Swedish embassy in Mexico and in 1998, the Universidad de las Américas Pueblas opened the Heriberto Juárez Sculpture Garden which contains over 100 of his pieces.
In 1999, two books on his work were published: Los dibujos de Heriberto Juárez and Heriberto Juárez, Platería.[1] In 2008, Heriberto Juárez. Escultura y pintura was published.
In recognition of his work, Juárez was accepted as a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana .
In 2010 the Museo Regional de la Laguna in Torreón, Coahuila had a retrospective of his work, specially to allow children and the visually-impaired touch the sculptures.