Luis Quintanilla

Luis Quintanilla was born in Santander, Spain, in 1893. During his lifetime, Quintanilla was a muralist and worked in many different mediums. His family moved to Madrid in 1905, where he studied architecture. During this time, he traveled to England, Brazil and Paris. While in Paris, he met Juan Gris. There he began painting. Quintanilla returned to Spain in 1915. In 1920 he traveled to Paris, where he began a friendship with Amedeo Modigliani and author Ernest Hemingway. 

Quintanilla moved to the United States, settling in New York, in January of 1939, which began his thirty-seven year exile from Spain. He was a part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Committee for Displaced Scholars and Artists program. That same year he painted a mural for the Spanish Pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York titled Love Peace Hate War.

In September 1940, Quintanilla came to the University of Kansas City to serve as the first artist-in-residence at the university. Clarence Decker, the president of the university, commissioned Quintanilla to paint a mural with the theme of 'Don Quixote in the Modern World.' Art students at the university at the time also assisted Quintanilla in painting the mural. While they were helping him, they received instruction in the different techniques of mural painting. The mural has six panels and totals 375 square feet. The murals are on the second floor of Haag Hall. 

During his stay at the university, in addition to working on the mural, Quintanilla also gave lectures on painting and art. Quintanilla used students, staff and faculty as models for his paintings. He died in 1978 in Madrid, Spain.