MCALLEN, TEXAS.- South Texas College Pecan Library Art Gallery presents The Paintings of Armando Garcia Nuñez. He is a master known for his serene paintings of the Mexican landscape and now everyone in the Valley will have the opportunity to enjoy his artwork first hand. South Texas College and Half Spoon, LLC are proud to present The Paintings of Armando Garcia Nuñez.

The opening reception for the exhibition, including guided tours of the display, will be held at STC’s Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery , located at 29th Street and Pecan Blvd. , on Thursday, June 28, 2007 from 6 – 8 p.m. Admission is free and everyone from the community is welcome to attend.

“It is an honor to be able to bring the work of this renowned artist to the Rio Grande Valley , especially offering the opportunity to view the display free of charge to all community members,” said Jose Cruz, vice president at STC and liaison for the display. “His work as an impressionist painter captured the heart and soul of the Mexican landscape, providing a beautiful connection with our neighboring country. Everyone in the Valley has a special place in the heart for Mexico and so this display is of particular meaning to us. We hope that everyone will take the opportunity to come by and see this collection first hand.”

Born in Oaxaca in 1883 Garcia Nuñez dedicated 64 years of his life to art. In 1901 he began studies at Mexico ’s renowned San Carlos Academy , where Diego Rivera started three years earlier. Garcia Nuñez studied under the great deaf-mute portraitist German Gedovius and the Catalan painter Antonio Fabrés, new to the faculty, who was experimenting with ways to bring photographic realism to still life painting. Inspired by the ideas of Fabrés, Garcia Nuñez took to painting landscapes.

He had his first exhibits in 1907 and 1909, and in 1911 he showed a notable collection of small canvases at the Academy. Interim Mexican president Francisco León de la Barra awarded him a grant to study in Europe . During this period he produced some oils that were altered to mimic the signature of noted Mexican landscape painter José María Velasco. Garcia Nuñez spent time in Barcelona , Madrid and Paris before returning in 1913 to Mexico in the midst of the Revolution.

In sharp contrast to the vanguard Mexican painters of his era, Garcia Nuñez professed an art-for-art’s-sake credo, “I have no faith in paintings whose emphasis is on their subject matter. The lineage of every good painting is purely aesthetic; everything else is mere rhetoric or chatter.” For 30 years he taught anatomical drawing and imitation at the National Preparatory School . He produced 15,000 paintings in his long and prolific career. His paintings have recently been sold at auction by Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

The collection will be on display from June 28 – September 21, 2007 at STC’s Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery . The exhibit is made possible through a two-year partnership between South Texas College and Half Spoon, LLC, and the cooperation of the Mexican Consulate of McAllen to bring art and culture to the Valley. For more information call 956-872-3598 or visit www.southtexascollege.edu/libraryart.