Nicolás Cuéllar

Nicolás Cuéllar (full name Jesús Nicolás Cuéllar Hernández b. September 6, 1927 –d. September 10, 2010.) was a Mexican painter who was best known for his surreal and magically themed work as well as his mentorship of the artistic community in his hometown of San Miguel de Allende. Some of his early work was noticed by Diego Rivera, who declared that the artist would be “a monster of painting.” Although he studied and exhibited abroad and his works can be found in collections in various parts of the world, Cuéllar dedicated most of his career in his studio in San Miguel de Allende.

Life

Nicolás Cuéllar was an Otomi artist, who was born and lived his entire life in the same house in the center of San Miguel de Allende (2ª. Calle de Jesús # 42). He was one of the few of this artists’ enclave who was from the town. He began painting by copying religious images, in part because his mother was religious and because the nuns at his school encouraged him.

He initially went to study art at the Academy of San Carlos in 1954, but left shortly after to study at the Instituto Allende from 1955 to 1957, which suited his disposition better and considered it a major element in his development. In 1962, he received a scholarship to study at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He left in 1963, shortly before finishing his studies after his work disappeared, marrying a Canadian artist and moving to Canada, where he exhibited before returning to Mexico to accept a teaching position at San Carlos.

His daughter remembers him as elegant, preferring light colored clothing and always wearing a hat, which he began wearing in the 1940s to cover the thick hair on his head. Every day the painter would leave his home in San Miguel de Allende to spend time in the main plaza of the city, after painting for several hours in the morning. Cuéllar developed most of his career in San Miguel de Allende, becoming well-respected in the artistic community as a mentor. His house hosted hundreds of artists and taught many of them. The house hosted a small gallery and studio, where an old Singer sewing machine table covered in a hand painted cloth served as the reception desk. In his later life, he lived with a parakeet and rooster that appear in many of his later works.

Cuéllar was married four times. He and his fourth wife divorced when she decided to return to Europe. They went to the Office of Records to file for an annulment but they had been married for too long. When the clerk turned his back, Cuellar tore the record of the marriage from the book and declared them divorced.

When he died, he left behind one daughter, Hortensia and one son, Carlos.

Career

In his early career he also did work in making jewelry (common for artists in San Miguel de Allende), ceramics, sculpture, weavings and furniture making. In 1957, Diego Rivera saw some of Cuellar’s lithographs and exclaimed that he would be “a monster of painting.”

His first exhibition was in 1955 at the Instituto Allende. These were followed by other local exhibitions in Guanajuato (1956), El Patio (1957) and at the Hallway Gallery (1958) in San Miguel de Allende.

In 1961 he exhibited at the Art Center L’Ely See, El Greco Gallery, the University of Montreal and the French Library in Montreal, followed by solo exhibitions at the Rotary Club in San Miguel de Allende and in Querétaro. In 1963 he exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Science in New York and in 1965 at the Gallery Mardi Gras in Mexico City.

In the 1980s he exhibited at the Saint Paul Episcopalian Church in San Miguel Allende (1981), the Instituto Allende (1983), the Casa de Cultura in Monterrey (1985), the San Miguel Library in San Miguel de Allende (1985), the Celaya Casa de Cultura (1986), Casa Fargo and Allende House Museum in San Miguel de Allende (1987) and Gallery 14 in San Miguel de Allende (1988).

In the 1990s he exhibited at the Office Pack, Open House and Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende (1991), Gallery Eugenia in San Miguel de Allende (1992), Museo Diego Rivera in Guanajuato (1993), Allende Museum House, Rotary Club and Juan Leny Gallery in San Miguel de Allende (1995), Del Valle University in San Miguel de Allende (1996), and at the Sacred Stone Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In the 2000s, the exhibited at the Instituto Allende and Cuellar Gallery in San Miguel de Allende (2001), the Casa de Cultura in Monterrey (2002,2004 and 2009), AR Gallery in Monterrey (2008) and the Santa Fe Galleries in New Mexico (2008).

Cuéllar created two murals during his career. The first was at the New York Methodist Hospital in 1963 and the second is at the the Hermanos Aldama Elementary School in San Miguel de Allende, created in 1971 and restored in 2000.

Cuéllar taught art at the Academy of San Carlos and at the Instituto Allende but later in his life he stopped working with institution, but continued to have private students.

His works can be found in collections in Mexico, the United States, England, Canada, Germany, Australia, Central and South America. About 600 of his works have been catalogued more remain.

In 2012, the city of San Miguel Allende paid tribute to the painter at the Angela Peralta Theater.

Artistry

Cuellar is best known for his surreal and magical works with a mixture of pre Hispanic, fantasy and Biblical elements, drawing on Mexican folklore and the mysticism of medieval Europe. His work has been comparted to Bosch, and he stated that his influences included Debussy and William Lake. Another inspiration was the towering spires of the San Miguel Arcángel Parish church. This focus took root after his return to Mexico in the 1960s, when he began to paint medieval themes in somber tones, witches, prostitutes, magicians, astronomers, clergy along with peculiar and fantastic figures such as men and women with multiple heads. Backgrounds often contained images of houses and mountains, and mountains that looked like cities. In this work he often played the role of a magician, conjuring a fantasy world, magical and often scary. He wrote once that he wanted to be “a harlequin and a goblin, a magician and an artist, a chess pawn and a king.