Rodolfo Nieto

Rodolfo Nieto Labastida (July 13, 1936 in Oaxaca – June 24, 1985 in Mexico City) was a Mexican painter of the Oaxacan School (apprenticed under Diego Rivera, later served him as an assistant).

Biography Rodolfo Nieto was born at home in Oaxaca on July 13, 1936. His father Rodolfo Nieto Gris, a medical epidemiologist, left the home mysteriously around 1949. After his disappearance, the family became destitute; his mother, Josefina Labastida de Nieto, a homemaker and seamstress, moved to Mexico City with Rodolfo, his younger brother Carlos Nieto, a poet—who was later murdered due to his political associations—after Rodolfo died, formed a new family with half brother Ignacio Saucedo. While Rodolfo attended public school, the art professor and dancer Santos Balmori on behalf of the Mexican Government, interviewed students for the Mexican folklorico. After Rodolfo auditioned, Balmori asked the teenager if he could do anything else. Rodolfo sketched a cat. The professor was impressed and asked him if he would like to participate in painting the scenery for the folklorico. It was Balmori who encouraged Rodolfo to begin his studies in 1954 at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda", Mexico City, where he studied with Carlos Orozco Romero and met Juan Soriano, who introduced him to books on European painting. In 1959, he had his first solo exhibition at the Galerías San Carlos.

Desiring to broaden his artistic influences, Nieto moved to Paris in the early 1960s. Here he became friends with artists such as Julio Cortázar, Severo Toledo and José Bianco. He worked at the Atelier 17 with Stanley William Hayter and his discovery of the work of Edvard Munch spurred an interest in wood engraving. He also worked at the lithography workshop of Michael Casse for German publisher Manus Press. Mentally Nieto took apart the structural aspect of the alebrijes and reconstructed them with the whimsy and wonderment of the Tarzan stories. This resulted not only in the Bestiario series of drawing and wood block prints, but established a style of painting that is now incorporated into the Oaxacan School. While in Paris, Nieto won the Biennale de Paris Prize for painting in 1963. He again won the Biennale de Paris Prize for painting in 1968. In 1966, Rodolfo Nieto illustrated “Manuel de zoologie fantastique” by Jorge Luis Borges. The new couple developed a deep connection with art, especially Nieto's new genre of Mexican art. However, Mexico was not ready for Nieto's art. “Because Mexico rejected his art, Rodolfo went into a deep depression.”

Octavio Paz According to Octavio Paz, "The interesting thing about him was seeking, restlessness, lack of satisfaction he felt with what he did, which is a symptom of undoubted talent. He was an intelligent man, a critically rare bird." Find the simplest elements and compose with them, in an almost a musical sense, seems to be the goal that guides the formation of its new characters ...