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Lot Essay
"In (Rodolfo) Nieto’s work there is something of euphoria and of joy that not only is emitted by the intensity and magic of his color; it is the joy of an artist who reveals tremendous pleasure in creating forms, rhythms, textures, marks. In a single word, of the one who enjoys all of the plastic values and for whom the act of painting has been of utmost importance in his life." –Estela Shapiro (quoted in Estela Shapiro, Imágen y presencia, 1985, p. 93).
The above praise of artist Rodolfo Nieto by Estela Shapiro, his gallery representative during the late 70s until his death at the young age of 49 in 1985, begins to capture how Nieto is best known: for the chromatic luminosity, organic line, dynamic brushwork, layered texture, patterning, whimsy, and expressive power that characterize his paintings, prints, and collages of abstracted animals, nature, and human figures. In the mid-to-late 1970s Nieto re-established himself in Mexico City after more than a decade-long residence in Europe (1958-72). In Paris he had successfully built an arts career represented by the Galerie de France, and friendships with artists Francisco Toledo and Rufino Tamayo, as well as writers and poets such as Julio Cortázar, Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Fuentes, and Octavio Paz, all whom admired Nieto’s work. When he returned from Paris to Mexico, he re-connected with his native Oaxaca by taking frequent trips there to study pre-Columbian monuments, arte popular (indigenous craft), and to collect Zapotec artifacts.
Nieto’s Carreta con bueyes and Paisaje likely emerged from those travels. He had left Oaxaca at age 13 for the metropolis, enrolling a few years later in the National Fine Arts School, La Esmeralda (1954-56); there he found the mentorship of Juan Soriano whose ground-breaking works of those very years such as Apolo y las Musas, La vuelta a Francia, and El pez luminoso surely guided Nieto in his commitment to figurative abstraction. Indeed, Nieto acknowledges a stylistic kinship with Soriano and Pedro Coronel stating, “I tried to capture the delicacy of Juan and the strength of Pedro, although my color was personal, distinct from one and the other” (Beatriz Espejo, “Entrevista con Rodolfo Nieto: A tantos años de distancia,” Revista de la Universidad de México 74, 2010, pp. 57- 64). Art historians consider Nieto alongside artists such as Soriano and Rufino Tamayo as a representative of the Ruptura era, the mid-century “break” in Mexico with social realist and monumental art. In Paisaje Nieto treats the Mexican landscape as simple geometric forms set against a night sky; lines connect constellations thus mirroring with triangles, pentagons, trapezoids, and parallelograms the forms of suggested mountains, caves, and crops below. An editioned engraving with the same title held in the Colección Blaisten relates directly to the imagery of this painting.
Nieto’s Paisaje invokes Rufino Tamayo’s meditations on the relationship between the human figure, land, and cosmos that he began in the 1940s. Furthermore, Nieto echoes the attraction that artists as diverse as Dr. Atl, Gunther Gerzo, Roberto Matta, and David Alfaro Siqueiros felt for the explosive power of the Mexican landscape as they witnessed, and responded to the eruption of Paricutín at mid-century.
Moreover, Nieto is considered a proponent of the Oaxaca School, not only because he hails from Oaxaca, but for his saturated color, use of texture, and his zoology, which included goats, camels, rhinoceri, ostriches, turkeys, rabbits, cats, frogs, bulls, cows, and more. A painting such as Carreta con bueyes places him solidly within the Oaxaca School; the rural theme of a cow and a bull bellowing at the moon while tethered to a rustic cart in a setting empty of human presence, the canvas thick with texture, vibrating with pattern, and the shifting, disorienting sense of perspective are all elements that show Nieto’s sympathy with the art of multiple generations of Oaxacan artists including Francisco Toledo, Maximo Javier, Sergio Hernández, and of course, Rufino Tamayo.
Teresa Eckmann, Associate Professor, Contemporary Latin American Art History, University of Texas, San Antonio
The above praise of artist Rodolfo Nieto by Estela Shapiro, his gallery representative during the late 70s until his death at the young age of 49 in 1985, begins to capture how Nieto is best known: for the chromatic luminosity, organic line, dynamic brushwork, layered texture, patterning, whimsy, and expressive power that characterize his paintings, prints, and collages of abstracted animals, nature, and human figures. In the mid-to-late 1970s Nieto re-established himself in Mexico City after more than a decade-long residence in Europe (1958-72). In Paris he had successfully built an arts career represented by the Galerie de France, and friendships with artists Francisco Toledo and Rufino Tamayo, as well as writers and poets such as Julio Cortázar, Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Fuentes, and Octavio Paz, all whom admired Nieto’s work. When he returned from Paris to Mexico, he re-connected with his native Oaxaca by taking frequent trips there to study pre-Columbian monuments, arte popular (indigenous craft), and to collect Zapotec artifacts.
Nieto’s Carreta con bueyes and Paisaje likely emerged from those travels. He had left Oaxaca at age 13 for the metropolis, enrolling a few years later in the National Fine Arts School, La Esmeralda (1954-56); there he found the mentorship of Juan Soriano whose ground-breaking works of those very years such as Apolo y las Musas, La vuelta a Francia, and El pez luminoso surely guided Nieto in his commitment to figurative abstraction. Indeed, Nieto acknowledges a stylistic kinship with Soriano and Pedro Coronel stating, “I tried to capture the delicacy of Juan and the strength of Pedro, although my color was personal, distinct from one and the other” (Beatriz Espejo, “Entrevista con Rodolfo Nieto: A tantos años de distancia,” Revista de la Universidad de México 74, 2010, pp. 57- 64). Art historians consider Nieto alongside artists such as Soriano and Rufino Tamayo as a representative of the Ruptura era, the mid-century “break” in Mexico with social realist and monumental art. In Paisaje Nieto treats the Mexican landscape as simple geometric forms set against a night sky; lines connect constellations thus mirroring with triangles, pentagons, trapezoids, and parallelograms the forms of suggested mountains, caves, and crops below. An editioned engraving with the same title held in the Colección Blaisten relates directly to the imagery of this painting.
Nieto’s Paisaje invokes Rufino Tamayo’s meditations on the relationship between the human figure, land, and cosmos that he began in the 1940s. Furthermore, Nieto echoes the attraction that artists as diverse as Dr. Atl, Gunther Gerzo, Roberto Matta, and David Alfaro Siqueiros felt for the explosive power of the Mexican landscape as they witnessed, and responded to the eruption of Paricutín at mid-century.
Moreover, Nieto is considered a proponent of the Oaxaca School, not only because he hails from Oaxaca, but for his saturated color, use of texture, and his zoology, which included goats, camels, rhinoceri, ostriches, turkeys, rabbits, cats, frogs, bulls, cows, and more. A painting such as Carreta con bueyes places him solidly within the Oaxaca School; the rural theme of a cow and a bull bellowing at the moon while tethered to a rustic cart in a setting empty of human presence, the canvas thick with texture, vibrating with pattern, and the shifting, disorienting sense of perspective are all elements that show Nieto’s sympathy with the art of multiple generations of Oaxacan artists including Francisco Toledo, Maximo Javier, Sergio Hernández, and of course, Rufino Tamayo.
Teresa Eckmann, Associate Professor, Contemporary Latin American Art History, University of Texas, San Antonio