Alfredo Guati Rojo

Alfredo Guati Rojo Cárdenas (December 1, 1918 – June 10, 2003) was a 20th-century Mexican artist who worked to restore the reputation of watercolor painting as a true art form. His preference for the technique came from seeing Diego Rivera’s work and helping with a fresco mural in his hometown of Cuernavaca as a child. When he was 16, he went to Mexico City to study law, but switched to art. He learned the various classic art techniques but kept his preference for watercolor. His career began by teaching art, founding an art institute in the Colonia Roma section of Mexico City. In the 1950s, he tried to get the area's art galleries to show watercolors but they refused, considering it to be a minor art form. He began to host exhibitions of watercolor works at his art institute with success which led to the formation of the Museo Nacional de la Acuarela or National Watercolor Museum in the 1960s. The museum remained in Colonia Roma until the 1985 Mexico City earthquake destroyed the building and led to its relocation to the Coyoacán borough, where it remains. During this time, Guati Rojo also had a career showing and selling his own artwork, almost exclusively watercolors, in various parts of the world. Most of his income from this painting went to support the museum.

Life Alfredo Guati Rojo Cárdenas was born on December 1, 1918, in Cuernavaca as the only child of María de Jesús Cárdenas and José Guati Rojo Ramírez. He spent his childhood listening to the stories of his paternal grandfather and traveling much of Mexico as his father was a criminal lawyer.

He began drawing and painting images from his hometown of Cuernavaca when he was in primary school at about age seven. However he believed that it was seeing the murals of Diego Rivera on the wall of the Palace of Cortes that inspired him to be an artist. He had a primary school art teacher, Luis Betanzos, who recognized the boy's talent. Betanzos was also associated with Eduardo Solares of the Academy of San Carlos. When Solares came to Cuernavaca to paint a new fresco, Guati Rojo was selected to be an assistant. This gave him his first experience in water-based paint. However, he soon decided that he did not like law and wanted to transfer to the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas . He progressed rapidly and began working at an assistant to his teachers. These earnings allowed him to buy watercolor supplies. Many of these early small paintings are part of the museum's permanent collection.

Career Guati Rojo's career began teaching art, starting from 1937 and teaching more or less full-time in various public and private schools until 1969. In 1954 he founded the Instituto de Arte de México in Colonia Roma. This institute offered shorter courses in the fine arts then traditional institutions and offered classes in ceramics, fashion design and jewelry making as well. The institute was located on the ground floor of the house he and his wife lived in. Here he gave classes and occasionally hosted cultural events. From the time he graduated from college, he had gathered a large collection of watercolors, starting with those of her former teachers and his past and present students. This collection became the base of Museo Nacional de la Acuarela or National Watercolor Museum, the first of its kind in the world in 1967. Guati Rojo tried to spark Mexican interest in the art of watercolor in the 20th century. Besides artist such as, Agapito Rincon Piña, Cristina Romero and Gral. Ignacio Beteta, who experimented with water color, most other artist experimented with other mediums.