Lola Cueto

María Dolores Velázquez Rivas, better known as "Lola" Cueto (March 2, 1897, in Azcapotzalco – January 24, 1978, in Mexico City) was a Mexican painter, printmaker, puppet designer and puppeteer. She is best known for her work in children's theater, creating sets, puppets and theatre companies performing pieces for educational purposes. Cueto took her last name from husband Germán Cueto, which whom she had two daughters, one of whom is noted playwright and puppeteer Mireya Cueto. Most of Cueto's artistic interest was related to Mexican handcrafts and folk art, either creating paintings about it or creating traditional works such as tapestries, papel picado and traditional Mexican toys.

Life Cueto was born María Dolores Velázquez Rivas in Azcapotzalco (now part of Mexico City) on March 2, 1897, to Juan Velázquez and Ana María Rivas.

Cueto entered the Academy of San Carlos when she was 12 years old. She was one of the academy's first female students, breaking social norms for women at the time. She was part of a group of students that included David Alfaro Siqueiros and Andrés Audifred, which rebelled against the traditional teaching methods of the academy. It is believed that she was the first female student there to be allowed into classes drawing nudes. With the support of the Ministry of Public Education, several groups were formed to perform the Cuetos' puppet shows in schools throughout Mexico, over a period of fifty years. Lola and Gérman Cueto had two daughters, named Ana Maria and Mireya (b. 1922), who 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.

Lola Cueto died on January 24, 1978, in Mexico City. Her contemporaries include María Izquierdo, Olga Costa and Helen Escobedo. Mexico City was a hub for art movements and collaborations in the 1920s. Among these were Stridentism, a popular multidisciplinary avant-garde movement. Although mostly male-dominated, a few women did manage to gain a foothold. One of then was Cueto herself, armed with a sewing machine. While her husband worked within the movement as a sculptor, she brought modernity to the art of tapestries by using her sewing machine. Her almost Pre-Columbian style was merged with folk depictions, all made possible with the use of a Cornelli embroidery machine.

She is best known for her work in theatre, especially with puppets and marionettes for children. Germán had the idea to create marionettes and puppets when the couple lived in Paris, but it was Lola who pursued it. She founded the Rin Rin, El Nahual and El Colorín theatre companies which performed educational sketches in urban and rural areas.

She created an early abstract sculpture.

She gave classes at Mexico City College. Her students included José Luis Cuevas.

Unlike other artists of the era, particularly her female contemporaries like Frida Khaldo, she didn't generate much controversy nor, consequently, much criticism for her work. By embracing the traditional and gendered, she sacrificed conventional creativity. Yet she found expression though parody. Through figurines in puppetry and paper mache of cathedrals, rosaries, and other religious iconography, she poses social commentary on the complexity of things like faith and where it fits in an increasingly secular Mexico.

She did not have many exhibitions of her work, but it was extensively written about by critics Paul Westheim and artist Jean Charlot. There was an individual exhibition of her work shortly after her death at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. Thirty years after that, in 2009, there was a retrospective of her work sponsored by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. (trancendencia) She is recognized as a master and innovator in the creation of marionettes and children's theatre.

Her early paintings are rigid, generally Impressionist style landscapes. Her later visual work is focused on Mexican handcrafts and folk art both in imagery and handcraft techniques incorporated into them. A mark of the times was modern art and popular folk art. The fact that Cueto opted to focus on handcrafts was the true surprise. One example are paintings of traditional Mexican toys, inspired by her concern of the rise of mass-produced toys in Mexico.

Although she is not considered to be an artisan, she did work with a number of traditional crafts such as lacquer, papel picado designs, embroidery and the making of traditional toys and marionettes for theatre performances.

Her notable creations include tapestries and other fabrics that have been machine embroidered. These include a series inspired by the stained glass windows of the Gothic cathedrals in Chartres and Bourges. She created a number of tapestries with religious themes such as primitive Christ and Virgin Mary images, rural altars as well as depicting indigenous people.