Juan Soriano was a Mexican artist known for his paintings, sculptures and theater work. He was a child prodigy whose career began early as did his fame with various writers authoring works about him. He exhibited in the United States and Europe as well as major venues in Mexico such as the Museo de Arte Moderno and the Palacio de Bellas Artes. His monumental sculptures can be found in various parts of Mexico and in Europe as well. Recognitions of his work include Mexico’s National Art Prize, the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres and membership in France’s Legion of Honour.
Soriano was born Juan Francisco Rodríguez Montoya in Guadalajara to Rafael Rodríguez Soriano and Amalia Montoya Navarro. Starting in childhood he began to call himself Juan Soriano, preferring the maternal surname of his father. He described his family of origin as “eccentric.”
He was a child prodigy, and in 1933, his sister introduced him to painter Alfonso Michel Martínez who taught him current modes of Expressionist and neo Baroque painting. He then studied under Francisco Rodríguez “Caracalla” at the Evolución Studio in Guadalajara, which also trained Raúl Anguiano and Jesús Guerrero Galván.
At this time he was also a regular visitor to the home and business of Jesús Reyes Ferreira. Reyes gave him work in his shop to make decorated wrapping paper as he did but Soriano found the work difficult. However, the time here allowed him to meet creators such as Luis Barragán and Roberto Montenegro,experience European art in books and magazines and discover portraits by José María Estrada, which Reyes collected. Soriano also went to his first museum and began to read classic books edited by José Vasconcelos.
His first exhibition of his work allowed him to meet artists such as José Chávez Morado, Lola Álvarez Bravo and María Izquierdo, who encouraged him to move to Mexico City, which he did in 1935 at the age of fifteen, along with his sister Martha. Here he continued a lifelong cultivation of friendships with artists, writers and intellectuals, which Sorianos stated was one of the main treasures of his life. These included Xavier Villaurrutia, Carlos Pellicer, Octavio Paz (who wrote several essays about him), Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Rafael Solana (with whom he traveled to UC Berkeley in 1938), Isabel Villaseñor, Frida Kahlo, Lupe Marín and Salvador Novo. He was part of a regular social circle with Octavio G. Barreda as part of his love for poetry and writing, becoming involved in magazines such as El hijo prodigo and La Revista de la Universidad de México.
Soriano visited Rome for the first time in 1952 and in 1954 visited Crete where he painted “Apolo y las musas.” He returned to Rome again to live from 1969 to 1975, which allowed him to study classical art.
In 1963 he suffered an automobile accident which he documented in a painting called El accidente.
In 1974, Soriano met Polish dancer Marek Keller on a visit to Paris, introduced by writer Sergio Pitol. This was the beginning of an over thirty-year relationship. Soriano worked incessantly and cared only about his work, leaving the rest of his affairs in disorder. Keller stepped in to manage most of these and put some order in the artist’s life. The two remained together, living in both Mexico City and Paris until Soriano’s death. Since then, Keller has worked to promote the artist’s legacy in various parts of the world.
Juan Soriano died in 2006 at the age of 85 at the Instituto Nacional de Nutrición Salvador Zubirán in Mexico City from multiple causes.
Soriano began his career early in life and fame came early as well. Soriano’s work was first exhibited at the Guadalajara Museum, which led to his move to Mexico City in 1935. From 1936 to 1937 he studied at the Escuela Noctura de Arte para Obreros under Emilio Caero and Santos Balmori. Balmori helped him to be accepted into the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR) and a small exhibition at the end of this course at the Palacio de Bellas Artes brought him to the attention of Inés Amor. However, he did not stay with LEAR for long, leaving in 1938 because he did not like its politics.
His first individual exhibition was in 1936 at the Galería de Arte Mexicano in Mexico City. This was followed by another at the Galería de Arte of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México . During the rest of the 1940s, he exhibited in various venues in New York and Philadelphia and at the Galería de Arte Mexicano. In the 1950s the exhibited at the Schneider Gallery in Rome, the first of many individual shows in Europe, along with exhibitions in venues in Mexico such as the Antonio Souza Gallery, the Ruthermore Gallery in San Francisco and his first retrospective and tribute at the Museo de Arte Moderno and Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1959. In the 1960s he had an important show at the Palacio de Bellas Artes (1966) as well as an exhibit of a series of portraits her created with only Lupe Marín as model at the Misrachi Gallery. In the 1970s, he received a grant from the Fundación Cultural Televisa to create thirty large scale works and thirty small ones which were then exhibited at the Museo de Arte Moderno. In 1993, he had an exhibit of sculpture at the Colegio de Jalisco and the Instituto Cultural de México in San Antonio. His last major exhibits before his death included the Centro Cultural Español de Cooperación Iberoamericana in Miami (2001), the Real Casa de Correos in Madrid (2002), the Meadows Museum and Southern Methodist University (2002), the Instituto Italo-Latino Americano in Rome (2003) and multiple exhibitions at the Instituto Mora in Mexico City (2005).

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