Germán Cueto

Germán Cueto (February 8 or 9, 1883 – February 14, 1975) was a Mexican artist. He was part of the initial wave of artistic activity following the Mexican Revolution. However, his stay in Europe from 1927 to 1932 moved him into more European and more abstract work, especially sculpture. While he had a number of exhibitions in Mexico during his life including a retrospective at the Museo de Arte Moderno in 1965, he did not have the kind of success that many of his contemporaries did as he did not follow the then dominant themes or styles of Mexican muralism movement. His work was considered to be avant-garde and is considered to be the first Mexican abstract artist, creating masks and sculptures of wood, wire, plastic, sheet metal, ceramic, electrical wire and other materials, traditional and non-traditional.

Life Germán Cueto was born Germán Gutiérrez Cueto y Vidal on February 8, 1893, in Mexico City, to parents Javier Gutiérrez Cueto and Paz Vidal. His father was from an intellectual and socially influential family from Cantabria, Spain, related to politician Matilde de la Torre and María Blanchard . At this time he met sculptor Fidencio Nava, which convinced him to change careers to art. When he returned to Mexico in 1918, he entered the Academy of San Carlos. However, he did not like its formalism and left shortly thereafter. Here he created a circle of contacts and friends in the European vanguard often through María Blanchard. These included Julio González, Otto van Rees (artist), Angelina Beloff, Adam Fischer, Joaquín Torres García, Jacques Lipchitz and Constantin Brâncuși. He became a member of the Cercle et Carré where he became associated with Piet Mondrian, Jean Arp, Wassily Kandinsky and Georges Vantongerloo. After the death of María Blanchard in 1932, he decided to return to Mexico with his family, inviting Angelina Beloff, Diego Rivera's abandoned first wife, to accompany them. He did not like the exclusiveness of the art scene in Mexico and for this reason tended to stay apart from his Mexican contemporaries.

Cueto's first wife was Lola Cueto whom he married in 1919. Together they lived in Paris for many years. The union produced two daughters, named Ana Maria and Mireya. Mireya Cueto (born 1922) became a well-known puppeteer, writer and playwright, winning the Bellas Artes Medal for her life's work. Mireya began her career helping her parents. Cueto later had a son, named Javier Cueto. His second wife was María Galán, and his widow was Ester Echeverría.

Germán Cueto died on February 14, 1975, at age 83 from heart failure. Most of his work would not be appreciated until late in his career and after his death, as a pioneer of abstract and modern art in Mexico and Latin America. Although still relatively unknown in Mexico, his work is more valued by collectors, especially small bronze pieces. and the Museo de Arte in Querétaro (2007).

One major aspect of his sculptural work is the use of new and unusual materials along with more traditional ones. He created sculptures of bronze, wood, wire, sheet metal, ceramics, enamel on metal, concrete, electrical cable, plastic and more. His aesthetic followed much of Umberto Boccioni's 1912 Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture when said that sculpture should use and combine whatever materials needed to realize a piece. It also emphasized the abstract over the figurative. Much of his experimentation was based on his knowledge of chemistry from his early student days and made him one of the most experimental sculptors in 20th century Mexico. Examples include concrete, electrical cable and wire pieces such as Estela II, Máscara (1948) and El Nahual. The sculpture Napoleón is done in limestone; Diálogo is done in multicolored wood.

Another important endeavor for Cueto was the creation of masks, the concept of which also figures in his sculpture and other work. He made masks of papier-mâché, cartonería, ceramic, plaster, wood, metal and wire. Many of these masks were made for use in theatre, with him often returning to creating fantastical faces with innovative designs.