Arnold Belkin

Canadian-born artist Arnold Belkin became one of the best-known public muralists in Mexico. Belkin began studying at the Vancouver School of Art, moving to Mexico City in 1948 to attend the National School for Painting and Sculpture. As a result of his family’s left-wing political background, Belkin took an interest in social issues from a young age and felt particularly drawn to the political public art of muralists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, whose works featured bold, nationalistic imagery. Belkin absorbed the influences of these artists and began painting his own murals in Mexico and later in New York, where he lived between 1968 and 1976. Belkin became a Mexican citizen in 1981, spending the remainder of his career in Mexico City painting, writing, and teaching.