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PORFIRIO SALINAS (American, 1910-1973). Autumn in the Hill Country. Oil on canvas. 24 x 28 inches (61.0 x 71.1 cm). Sign...
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Description
PORFIRIO SALINAS (American, 1910-1973)Autumn in the Hill Country
Oil on canvas
24 x 28 inches (61.0 x 71.1 cm)
Signed lower left: P. Salinas
Porfirio Salinas was born at Bastrop, Texas, in 1911. The son of tenant farmers, he
was one of the first Mexican-American artists to gain national fame. Although the
family soon moved to San Antonio-where his father became a railroad worker-
Salinas often returned to the Bastrop area to visit his grandmother and to sketch.
He began assisting Robert William Wood in the latter's studio about 1925. Salinas
accompanied Wood and Jose Arpa-with whom Wood was then studying-on plein
air sketching trips in the hills surrounding San Antonio.
In 1926, Arpa founded a plein air painting school near Bandera, Texas, where he
was assisted by his nephew and fellow artist, Xavier Gonzalez. It is likely Salinas
was part of the Bandera School, and was probably exposed to the entries in the San
Antonio Competitive Exhibitions held at the Witte Museum annually from 1927
through 1929. The initial exhibition focusing on Texas wildflowers, with its $6,000
in prize monies offered by Luling, Texas, oilman Edgar B. Davis, firmly chiseled in
the budding artist's mind the obsession of Texans with their native flora. (After Julian
Onderdonk, no Texas artist is more identified with Texas bluebonnets.) By 1930,
Salinas began to paint on his own in an Impressionistic style using fairly heavy
impasto to depict the Texas landscape, genre scenes from around San Antonio, and
Mexican bullfights.
Married in 1942 and drafted into the U.S. Army the following year for World War
II service, Salinas used his talents to create paintings for officers and officer's clubs
during his service. By the late 1940s, and largely through the efforts of colorful
Austin art dealer Dewey Bradford, Salinas's career began to soar. When Lyndon
B. Johnson became Vice-President of the United States in 1961, followed by his
elevation to the Presidency due to the assassination of President Kennedy, Salinas's
paintings were featured prominently, first in the vice-president's residence, then in
The White House. President Johnson spoke frequently about his favorite painter,
and the demand for Salinas's paintings increased. Fittingly, Salinas died only a few
months after President Johnson in 1973.
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