Manuel Felguérez

Cigarra Plateada, Abstract Geometric Screenprint by Manuel Felguerez Barra

circa 1980

Manuel Felguérez was born on December 12, 1928 in Zacatecas. When his father died prematurely in 1935, the family moved the following year - permanently - to the Federal District with the maternal grandparents who owned the then Ideal Theater. Felguérez received his education at the Colegio México from the Marist brothers and was a member of the Scouts of Mexico, where he met Jorge Ibargüengoitia. Later he enrolled in the San Carlos Academy, where he only stayed four months before deserting, tired of the emphasis that was made of the Mexican School of Painting. However, he studied at the National School of Plastic Arts - Academia de San Carlos - of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1948, at the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving "La Esmeralda" in 1951, at the Academia de la Grande Chaumier in Paris between 1944 and 1959 and between 1954 and 1955, at the Colarossi Academy in Paris, France thanks to a grant from the French government. These last two are of utmost importance for his training, since it is there that he works with the French sculptor of Russian origin Ossip Zadkine (1949–1950), who, trained in Cubism, will have to become one of the greatest influences for the later work by Manuel Felguérez. Felguérez's style formation and images are closely linked to the various movements in Europe, such as incorporating geometric-constructivist, informalism and abstract expressionism that was exposed in his first formation. He has merged these elements into his own style. His work often contains basic geometric shapes like circles, triangles, rectangles and squares, in combinations to form his own "language". His work has been compared to Picasso and Tamayo by art experts like Teresa del Conde. It affirms many influences, but does not follow any one specifically. Upon his return to Mexico, he was a part of the first generation of national abstract artists, openly confronted with the tradition of the Mexican School of Painting, headed by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco; The Generation of Rupture includes, among others: Vicente Rojo, Fernando García Ponce and Lilia Carrillo, whom he had met with Zadkine, and with whom Felguérez would marry in 1960. Lilia Carillo died in 1974 and later Felguérez married Mercedes Oteyza , ex-wife of Juan García Ponce. His era is characterized as constant experimentation because the artist begins to be distinguished from the craftsman. It is against the neo-nationalism movement in Mexican art. His work gradually changes, instead of leaping from one style to another. His most recent work shows the use of new technologies. His academic career, carried out in parallel to his artistic activity, led him in 1966 to be a visiting professor at Cornell University, United States, and in 1975, guest researcher at Harvard University, as well as to teach the Composition class of the Structure of the Painting in the National School of Plastic Arts. From 1977, he became a researcher at the Institute of Aesthetic Research at UNAM, until his retirement in 1990. He made his first solo exhibition in 1958, at the Antonio Souza Gallery. He was an artist of interdisciplinary activity, walking between painting, murals and sculpture. In 1959, he made a mural for an apartment building located on a street in Mexico and with mosaic and marble material.