Luis Filcer

Filcer was born in Zhytómyr, Ukraine in 1927. When he was six months old, his family emigrated from his native country to Mexico. From childhood Filcer had a dislike for school, but learned to draw. He studied accounting to support his father with the company. When he was sixteen he entered the Academia de San Carlos to study painting, taking classes in the morning and working in the afternoon. An award at the Circle of Fine Arts allowed Filcer to obtain a scholarship to live and study for two and a half years in Paris and Rome, starting at the School of Fine Arts (Paris). In addition to spending time drawing models in the academy, he drew and painted ordinary people: fishermen, peasants, workers and beggars. He did this activity with his friend Juvenal Sansó, with whom he traveled to Rome to continue his studies. A teacher in Rome suggested painting Bohemians, a comment that bothered him. He dropped out of the Italian school after a month. While still in Europe, Filcer spent his time traveling and visiting museums in London, Madrid, Amsterdam, Rome, and Florence, studying the paintings. Throughout his career, Filcer had around three hundred exhibitions around the world, especially in Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, France, Israel, Italy and Germany. He began his career in Mexico, where he sold his first paintings and in 1949 he worked at the Taller de Gráfica Popular. He represented Mexico in biennials in Chile, Japan and England, which got him a scholarship to study in Paris and Rome. His work was part of an exhibition organized by the Palacio de Bellas Artes called "Jewels of Mexican Art", which traveled the world for fifteen years. In 1957 Filcer returned to Mexico and worked for the Havre Gallery. The success in this sample, allowed him to return to Europe, visit Jerusalem and several cities in the United States. Filcer married a Dutch woman for twenty years, with quite a few solo exhibitions in the country including the Heart Ripper, Van Bommel and Frans Hals museums, as well as the Grand Palais in Paris in 1988. He then returned to Mexico where he had exhibits in 1990 and 1991 at the Museum of Modern Art, at the Contemporary Art Museum at UNAM in 1994, at the Museum of the Stamp in Mexico City in 1998, in 2000 he had exhibitions at the Mexican Cultural Center and the Casa del Risco Museum. In 2001, he had exhibitions at the Francisco Goitia Museum in Zacatecas and at the “Jaski Gallery” in Amsterdam. Among the recognitions of Filcer's work include gold and silver medals from the Círculo de Bellas Artes in 1949 and 1950, José Clemente Orozco gold medal in 1953, among others. In 1998, he was named "Knight of the City" in Maastricht. He is also a member of the Mexican Plastic Show.