(Jaén, Spain, 1912 - Mexico City, Mexico, 1963)

José Horna was an artist and a left activist born in Spain. Nonetheless, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War forced him to leave his native country where he served as illustrator at Umbral magazine, a militant periodical of the Anarchist movement. He fled to Paris where he worked briefly with his wife Kati Horna at Agence Photo magazine until the Nazi occupation of the city forced them to move to Mexico.

He arrived at the port of Veracruz in Mexico in 1939. Shortly after, he moved with his wife to Mexico City, where met Chiki Weisz (Emérico), Gerardo Lizárraga, Benjamín Péret, Leonora Carrington, and Remedios Varo. His house then became a social meeting place for exiled and non-exiled surrealists.

Horna cultivated a type of art known as “object art,” which consists of elements impregnated with everyday life and a great emotional charge that recall specific moments from his life. He developed biomorphic elements in his surrealist sculptures. In the last chapter of his life, he worked as illustrator for magazines, made drawings and toys, and collaborated with Carrington and Varo in various creative projects.