Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, Jose Aceves became a painter, muralist, designer, and sculptor who exhibited widely in the area of El Paso, Texas, where he moved with his family during the Mexican Revolution. As an artist he was basically self taught, although he learned informally from his friends Tom Lea and Audley Dean Nicols. He painted murals at the El Paso Post oofice and was in Arizona. In 1936, he completed a painting of the Grand Canyon.

During World War II, Aceves served in the U.S. Navy including being an illustrator. After the war, he used the GI Bill to attend El Paso Technical High School and the American Academy of Art in Chicago. He returned to El Paso for the remainder of his life, dying there in 1968.

Source:
John and Deborah Powers, Texas Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists

He painted New Deal murals for the post offices in the towns of Mart and Borger, Texas. The Borger mural hangs at the Hutchinson County Museum in Borger.

Information provided by Michael R. Grauer, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

In about 1967 a local food manufacturer gave a commission for a painting to Jose Aceves. The painting was to be made of the first man who was a medical man that died in the first world war.

The VA hospital was named after this officer, whose name was Fitszimmons.

Unbeknownst this would be Mr. Aceves last painting. He donated the painting to the Kansas City art museum.

This painting is rather large, about 5 feet wide and about 42 inches high.

A dedication ceremony with the assistance of the fourth degrees Knights of Columbus was done to dedicate the painting. It was held in a hotel on the Missouri side of the river in Kansas City.

Friends and associates attended this gala.

Submitted by Ed Deneka