Cantú, Federico (1908–1989)

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Cantú, Federico (1908–1989)

Federico Cantú (b. 3 March 1908; d. 1989), Mexican painter. Born in Cadereyta, Nuevo León, Cantú studied at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts in Mexico City and later lived and worked in France between the world wars. While in Europe, he was exposed to the works of Botticelli, El Greco, and the English Pre-Raphaelites. Back in Mexico, Cantú became one of a group of painters who rejected the politics of muralism and returned to easel painting with an intimate and classicizing sensibility. As a devout Christian, Cantú made the central theme of his art a contemporary representation of Christian subjects, such as annunciations and crucifixions. A virtuoso engraver, he produced prints depicting the Passion and other devotional themes. He also executed many frescoes in churches, among them a monumental crucifixion in the Santísima Trinidad in Mexico City. For many years, Cantú was an instructor of drawing and painting at the Esmeralda School of Fine Arts. He died in Mexico City.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

McKinley Helm, Modern Mexican Painters (1948).

Augustín Arteaga, Federico Cantú, una nueva visión (1989).

Additional Bibliography

Abraham, Nuncio. El espejo habitado: Federico Cantu y su obra. Monterrey: Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Consejo para la Cultura de Nuevo Leon, 1999.

                                     Alejandro Anreus