Germán Cueto

Germán Cueto
Born	Germán Gutiérrez Cueto February 8 or 9, 1883 Mexico City
Died	February 14, 1975
Nationality	Mexican
Known for	painting, sculpture, puppet design

Germán Cueto (born Mexico City, February 8 or 9, 1883 – died 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.

Germán Cueto was born Germán Gutiérrez Cueto y Vidal on February 8, 1893 in Mexico City to 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 .

He was studying chemistry when the Mexican Revolution broke out, interrupting his studies as he fled to Spain to escape the fighting. At this time he met sculptor Fidencio Nava which convinced him to change careers to art. When he returned to Mexico in 1918, entered the Academy of San Carlos. However, he did not like its formalism and left shortly thereafter. He later studied in Paris.

In 1923, he was a cofounder of the Stridentism movement in Mexico, along with Manuel Maples Arce, Germán List Arzubide, Salvador Gallardo, Silvestre Revueltas, Jean Charlot, Edward Weston and Tina Modotti. The goal of this movement was to reshape literature and art entirely, but fading by the end of the decade.

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