Mexican painter Raul Anguiano was born in Jalisco during the post-revolutionary period in Mexico. His distinctive personality and recognizable creativity made him one of the great exponents of the Mexican School of Painting, and he occupies a privileged place in the history of art.

At the tender age of five, he made his first sketches and drawings of Alvaro Obregon, Venustiano Carranza and Rodolfo Gaona (the bullfighter). Seven years later, at the age of twelve, he joined the Guadalajara Free School of Painting, at the Museum State of Jalisco, where he learned many techniques and developed a passion for pre-Columbian and folk art.

At nineteen, he moved to Mexico City and devoted himself to his painting and teaching art. He stood out as a founding teacher for The Emerald School of Painting and Sculpture.

Since the beginning of his artisitic endeavours, he emphasized Mexico's distinctive qualities such as its social processes, ethnic diversity, and is rural and urban popular traditions and festivities. Anguiano possessed an affinity for depicting significant moments and memorable characters through his artwork. He also captured the warmth, brightness and atmosphere of our land by recreating moments that have shaped history.

His work demonstrates his mastery of drawing and use of a variety of media such materials as oil, watercolor, sculpture, drawing, sketches for murals, monotypes, prints, ceramics, tapestry and enamels.

With a keen dominace of technical and color, he created over 70 drawings of Mayan ruins and trails in addition to his vivid portrayals of Lacandon landscapes, life, and customs. These experiences set the indigenous trait in his work and therefore began to receive recognition for pieces such as The Thorn, Lacandones Roasting Zarahuato Monkeys, Nakin's profile.

Anguiano's presence in muralism was justified by his interest in revolutionary thought and worker's movements. His first mural, on display to the date at the Revolution School Center, clearly demonstrates such convictions. Throughout his life, Anguiano painted nearly 50 murals. The most outstanding ones can be seen at the National Museum of Anthropology, the Ministry of Public Education, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Mexico, and the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana,California, U.S.A.

He is considered one of Mexico's portrait masters because this subject constituted the most consistent part of his work. The way he interpreted his subjects became a lasting homage to their character. This aspect is especially apparent regarding his female nudes, in which he provides the spectator with a strong, independent and sensual figure. Memorable portraits include pieces such as Alfa Henestrosa, Maria Asunsolo, Pita Amor, Brigita Anguiano, The Grandmother, Old Man's Head and Girl in the Green Coat, as well as the portraits of various national heroes that can be found in elementary textbooks.

Anguiano's vivid surrealistic period is marked by ideal recreations of dreams, images, and personal interests involving impressions of time and circumstances. Significant pieces include: The Call of the Instinct, Cain, Returning to Earth, and The Marine Dream.

His long professional career has been translated into 50 catalogues displaying his work.
He also illustrated a number of books and made representative lithographs based on popular proverbs.

His first exhibitiontook place in 1935 in Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) along with Maximo Pacheco. In this exhibition, he presented pieces related to industrial topics, factories, and scenes portraying the workers' movement.

Since then, more than 100 individual and collective exhibitions have displayed his work in a number of museums, galeries and institutions worldwide.

During his lifetime he recived many homages and awards in Mexico and other countries.

Anguiano and Siqueiros were among the first graphic artists that began to make their tax payments to the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit in kind.
He possessed a great sensibility for social issues, and therefore always donated part of his pieces to social campaigns and social work programs such as the Red Cross, UNICEF, Rotary Club, hospitals, children's cancer homes, street children, single mothers on the border, and the elderly.

When asked how he wished to be remembered in the history and in every day life, Anguiano answered: "I would like for some of my work to live on and for the Mexican School of Painting to be recognized. This is why I want to donate some of my best pices to Mexico so they can be conserved and contemplated by future generations".