Florence Arquin

Painter, photographer, educator, writer, and critic Florence Arquin was born in 1900 in New York City and was widely known for her expertise in the field of Latin American studies. A graduate in art education from the Art Institute of Chicago, she also undertook post graduate studies at the National University of Mexico. From 1935 to 1939 she worked as administrator for the Federal Art Project in Illinois and joined the Art Institute of Chicago in 1939 to develop education programs aimed at secondary school students.

In the early 1940s Arquin traveled to Mexico to paint, where she developed friendships with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. In 1943 a solo exhibiton of her paintings at the Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City was highly praised by Rivera in the catalog introduction. Arquin's book Diego Rivera: The Shaping of an Artist, 1889-1921 about the artist's formative years, was published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1971.

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