Agustín Lazo Adalid

Agustín Lazo Adalid (1896 – January 28, 1971) was a Mexican artist and playwright who is credited with introducing surrealism to Mexico. Although he grew up during the era of the Mexican Revolution, his time in Europe in the 1920s and early 1930s, set his aesthetics towards the avant-garde movements of that continent, rather than towards Mexican muralism, making him a part of the Los Contemporáneos or “Grupo sin grupo.” His work in art and theater influenced each other, with his art having theatrical themes and his theater having emphasis on sets and visual cues. Lazo retired from art in 1950, after the death of his long-time partner poet Xavier Villaurrutia, supposedly never painting or writing again.

Life Agustín Lazo was born in Mexico City in 1896 to a wealthy and well-known family. He did not have economic concerns like many other artists so he could choose what he wanted to study, write, design and paint. He began his art studies at the Escuela al Aire Libre de Pintura in Santa Anita, founded by Alfredo Ramos Martínez in 1913 In 1917, he briefly attended the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, along with Rufino Tamayo, Julio Castellanos and Gabriel Fernández Ledesma, studying under Saturnino Herrán .

He began his art career after the Mexican Revolution with Adolfo Best Maugard but then left for Europe living for a while in Paris in 1922. He visited Europe again in 1925 then lived there from 1927 to 1931. He spent his time in Europe traveling in France, Italy, Belgium and Germany, visiting museums and the studios of various avant-garde artists meeting artists such as Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico . He spent most of his time in Paris, which then was a magnet for international artists of various types, which introduced him to surrealism. He lived and worked as an artist in the city, sharing a studio with Alfonso Michel in Montparnasse .

Lazo ended his artistic career in 1950, when Villaurrutia suddenly died and according to stories, never wrote or painted again. Salvador Novo wrote that he slowly died over the next twenty years, in part because as the last heir he was overwhelmed by the wealth he was inheriting from his relatives. and is best known for his watercolors, graphic work and set design.

When living in Paris, Lazo began working in the theater. When he returned to Mexico he became a key member of two experimental theatrical groups, Ulises Theater and Orientación Theater. Plays in which he did the set design include Antigone, Macbeth, Requesting Her Hand, Nikolai Gogol’s The Marriage as well as Mexican plays such as Ifigenia Cruel by Alfonso Reyes and En qué piensas by Villaurrutia. In 1982, the Museo Nacional de Arte paid homage to him with an anthological exhibition of his pictures. or Rodolfo Usigli's Corona de Sombra, written in 1943 and first performed in 1946). La huella (1946) studies Mexican society after the Reform War and the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz and represents the problems of mestizo society as it became dominant. The story is set in a hacienda and focused on Guadalupe, representing old Mexico, pursued by two suitors who want to create a New Mexico. Lazo was involved in two plays which had themes related to sexuality as well. One of these is La mulata de Córdoba by Xavier Villarruitia, with the opera version giving credit to Lazo as well. El caso de Juan Manuel was written by Lazo, set in colonial times with a mass murderer killing young criollo men. The play explores the situation of the homosexual man in terms acceptable to 1948.