Federico Cantú
| Federico Cantú | |
|---|---|
Self portrait dated 1950
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| Born |
Federico Heraclio Cantú Garza March 3, 1907 Cadereyta Jiménez |
| Died | January 29, 1989 (aged 81) Mexico City |
| Nationality | Mexican |
| Known for | painting, engraving, sculpture |
| Notable work | IMSS - Mural Pinacoteca V México- Enseñanzas de Quetzalcoatl -Enseñanzas del Cura Hidalgo- Tira de la Peregrinacion Azteca - Crsito Muerto- Cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis-El triunfo de la Muerte-Zapata Tierra y libertad-Viacriccis-Xilonetl- Leda y el Cisne-Monumento Alfonso Reyes |
| Movement | Mexican muralism |
Federico Heraclio Cantú Garza (March 3, 1907 – January 29, 1989) was a Mexican painter, engraver and sculptor. While considered to be a member of the Mexican muralism movement, his style was noticeably different, mostly for adhering to older and more academic forms of painting and sculpture. He had his most success exhibiting in the United States and Europe, but he did murals and sculptures in Mexico. His best known work is a sculpture called La maternidad which was adapted as the logo of the Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social (IMSS).
Cantú was born to María Luiza Garza, a novelist, and Adolfo Cantú, a journalist who opposed the Porfirio Díaz regime. He was born shortly before the Mexican Revolution and spent his childhood split between Nuevo León and San Antonio, Texas, with the family moving back permanently to Mexico in the 1920s. He was born on March 3, 1907 in Monterrey, but later in life, he changed his birth year to 1908 and his birthplace to Cadereyta Jiménez, where his family was originally from.
In 1922, at age 14, Cantú entered the Escuela de Pintura al Aire Libre, which was directed by Alfredo Ramos Martínez. He had contact with the growing Mexican muralism movement and briefly studied fresco painting under Diego Rivera in 1924.
From 1924 to 1934, he traveled and lived in Europe and the United States. He first went to live in Paris on Rue Delambre in Montparnasse, being only sixteen years old. During his time in Europe he met various artists of the avant garde of the time, including Picasso, Alfonso Reyes, poet César Vallejo and sculptor Mateo Hernández. He studied with sculptor Jose de Creeft. When he lived in Paris, he gathered a collection of drawings called the "Paris Collection" by his son Federico Cantú Fabila , FCF. However, during his time there, he created over two chests of drawings made at Le Grande Chaumière. These chests were lost.
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