Neo-Figurativism
Mexico
José Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934–2017) was born in Mexico City in 1934. Cuevas studied at the National School of Painting & Sculpture at age 10. He developed a unique aesthetic depicting disfigured and disproportionate people and objects.
Dos Personas by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). One of the few woodcuts published by Jose Luis Cuevas. As is common, the artwork is printed over a personal item, in this case an envelope. Published circa 1992 by the José Luis Cuevas Museum.
Condition: Excellent. Framed.
Untitled Watercolor by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). The image depicts a man looking back at his self portrait. Dated 1969. Watercolor and ink (framed). Signed and dated by the artist. Exhibited: Challenge: Young Latin America on Paper (Exhibition 60), CDS Gallery, New York, November 17 - December 4, 1986. Latin American Artists (Exhibition 127), CDS Gallery, New York, May 13 - 28, 1994
Size: 18 7/8" h x 12" w (sight). Framed.
Condition: Excellent. Framed.
Exhibition: Challenge: Young Latin America on Paper (Exhibition 60), CDS Gallery, New York, November 17 - December 4, 1986
Latin American Artists (Exhibition 127), CDS Gallery, New York, May 13 - 28, 1994
El Dictador Teacrata Garcia Moreno by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Signed, inscribed, dated Wash. Nov. 1959, pen, ink, and wash on paper, mounted on an artists' board.
NOTE: Cuevas refers to the "Biennial Sao Paulo" in red ink in the inscription. Please see excerpts from the seminal essay "José Luis Cuevas and the "New" Latin American Artist" by Christopher Fulton of the University of Louisville, 2011-2012 "The body of drawings and watercolors that Cuevas showed at São Paulo and Buenos Aires included a selection from the series Funeral of a Dictator (Funerales de un dictador), which he had begun in New York.... As Cuevas explained with reference to the seminal source photograph: "I saw [the display of García Moreno's body] as something monstrous, an act, indeed, of 'Black Spain' in America. I began to work on the theme.... With that abominable funeral I wished to condemn all dictatorships of all times as the most intolerable indignity human beings can stoop to." (TC).
The full text and images of this essay are available at
http://www.analesiie.unam.mx/index.php/analesiie/article/view/2431/2535
(NN4000)(TC)
Size: 8 1/2" h x 3" w (Sheet (uneven)), 12 1/2" h x 7" w (framed)
Condition: Excellent.
El Matrimonio de los Arnolfi (State II) by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Lithograph on Arches paper. Signed by the artist. Limited edition numbered 11 of 20.
Size: 22 1/2" x 30" (sheet)
Condition: Very good.
Lo Feo de este Mundo II by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Lithograph on Arches paper from the Homage to Quevedo Suite. Signed by the artist. Limited adition Artists Proof.
Size: 22 1/2" h x 30" w (sheet)
Condition: Very good. Framed.
Pelloriofes by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Dated 1956. Lithograph, signed and dated in pencil by the artist. Limited edition numbered 19 of 20. Printed by Tamarind with their blind stamp lower left.
Size: 10 ½" h x 33” w (sheet)
Condition: Excellent.
Plate 8 from Recollections of Childhood by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Dated October 10th, 1962. Lithograph from an illustrated portfolio with 12 lithographs titled Recollections of Childhood. Signed in pencil by the artist. Limited edition numbered 37 of 100. Published / printed: Kanthos Press, Los Angeles.
Size: 16" h x 22" w
Condition: Excellent. Framed.
Wanted from the Crime Suite by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Dated 1968. Limited edition numbered 50 of 100. Signed and numbered by the artist in red pencil.
Size: 22" h x 30" w (sheet).
Condition: Excellent. Framed.
The Sorceres La Vida by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Dated 1969. Lithograph in colors. Pencil signed upper center by the artist. Limited edition numbered 43 of 100. With museum tags and information sheet on the back from the Mexican Museum in San Francisco.
Size: 22.5" h x 30" w (sheet), 25.5" h x 32.5" w (framed)
Condition: Excellent. (framed)
En la Mesa (On the Table) by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Etching. Signed and numbered by the artist. Limited edition numbered 27 of 100. Dated 1985.
Size: 11 5/8" h x 15 1/2" w (image), 19 1/2" h x 23 3/8" w (sheet)
Condition: Excellent.
Rembrandt as a Child by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Aquatint Etching, Signed and numbered in pencil by the artist. Limited edition numbered 41 of 70. Dated 1988.
Size: 8" h x 10" w (image), 17" h x 16 1/2" w (paper)
Condition: Excellent.
Autorretrato by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). Original lithograph by the artist José Luis Cuevas, an artist known for his style which incorporated modernism and neo-figuratism. The lithograph is titled Autorretrato in the plate and was published in Barcelona in 1981. Signed in pencil Cuevas and dated 81. Limited edition numbered in pencil 59 of 99. Published by: Poligrafa.
Size: 30" h x 22" w (sheet)
Condition: Very good.
Para Una Escultura en Homenaje a M. L. King by Jose Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934-2017). A very fine Cuevas mixed media honoring Martin Luther King. Titled in ink "... para una escultura en homenaje a M. L. King." Ink, pen, watercolor and what appears to be goldpoint on prepared surface. Signed Cuevas 8-Majo-68 Nueva York. Mounted on a linen covered board.
Size: 5 1/2" h x 8" w (image)
​Condition: Very good.
José Luis Cuevas (Mexican, 1934–2017) was born in Mexico City in 1934. Cuevas studied at the National School of Painting & Sculpture at age 10. He developed a unique aesthetic depicting disfigured and disproportionate people and objects.
Cuevas was a controversial figure, especially in Mexican art and politics at the time. He was affiliated with the post World War II movement known as Generación de la Ruptura, or Breakaway Generation. Cuevas and other members of the Generación were vocal opposers about Mexican muralists and artists they believed were mainstream and overly deferential to the Mexican government. The artists they spoke out against included Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Cuevas also opened a museum in an old monastery in 1992 that still shows his eccentric artwork and reveals his open lifestyle. Cuevas represented Mexico in 1982 at the Venice Biennale. His works can be found in major museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, LACMA, and many others. José Luis Cuevas died in Mexico City in 2017.
