Rodolfo Nieto Defines the Oaxacan School of Painting

Rodolfo Nieto in Paris studio, c. 1963

Mandrill,c. 1968 by Rodolfo Nieto

Nancy Nieto continues to paint

Rodolfo Nieto, Mexican painter of the Oaxacan School (b- July 13, 1936, Oaxaca, d- June 24, 1985, Mexico City) apprenticed under Diego Rivera, later served Rivera as an assistant. Nieto attended La Esmeralda School of Fine Art, Mexico City, where he studied with Carlos Orozco Romero. Desiring to broaden his artistic influences, Nieto moved to Paris in the early 1960’s. In Paris away from his indigenous environment, Nieto began to re-think folk art from his native Oaxaca mainly focusing on the brightly painted hand-carved wooden animals known as alebrijes. He combined the alebrijes with the Burne Hogarth’s Tarzan comic strip stories of his childhood. Nieto wrote: “To Burne Hogarth I dedicate, in memory of the Tarzan stories of my childhood, the series of animals I drew while I was in Switzerland, likewise the xylographs I created in Munich and Paris.”¹ Mentally Nieto took apart the structural aspect of the alebrijes and reconstructed them with the whimsy and wonderment of the Tarzan stories. This resulted not only in the Bestiario series of drawing and wood block prints, but established a style of painting that is now incorporated into the Oaxacan School. While in Paris, Nieto won the Biennale de Paris Prize for painting in 1963[1]. He again won the Biennale de Paris Prize for painting in 1968. In 1970 he won the Bienal of Caen, and Bienal de Menton. He returned to Mexico in 1970. In Europe Nieto had gained fame, and recognition in the art world, but in Mexico his art was rejected. A sensitive young man, Nieto was hurt that the Mexican art critiques refused to consider his work seriously. His wife, Nancy Nieto, a painter in her own right, said, “Because Mexico rejected his art, Rodolfo went into a deep depression.”² Rodolfo and Nancy pressed on. They painted together every day, from the morning until often late into the evening. Nancy helped Nieto stretch and gesso the canvases, sketch the major constructions lines and Nieto would finish the work. Together they created hundreds of paintings. With the frenzy of work, Nieto became exhausted, and depressed. His sleeping was erratic, his mind began wondering, seeing things, speaking and acting unusual. His brief life ended on June 24, 1985. One of the last things he told Nancy was “Keep my paintings. Someday they will be very valuable.” Nancy Nieto continues to paint in the Oaxacan style of Rodolfo Nieto. ^1.Rodolfo Nieto: Bestiario. Galeria Lopez Quiroga, Mexico, D.F., 1993, p. 2 ^2.Interview with Nancy Nieto, c. June 1995.

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