Cordelia Urueta facts for kids

Cordelia Urueta Sierra (born September 16, 1908, in Coyoacán – died November 3, 1995, in Mexico City) was a talented Mexican artist. She was famous for using bright colors and abstract shapes in her paintings. Even with abstract art, she often included hints of human forms.

Cordelia came from a very smart and artistic family. Her relatives included the famous painter David Alfaro Siqueiros and the important educator Justo Sierra. Her father, Jesús Urueta Siqueiros, was a writer and diplomat. He passed away when she was only eleven, and her health became quite poor after that.

She started drawing as a child, mostly portraits. A well-known artist named Dr. Atl noticed her special talent. Cordelia didn't have a lot of formal art training. However, she became an art teacher and met many important Mexican artists of her time. One of them was her husband, Gustavo Montoya. After living in Paris and New York, she returned to Mexico for good in 1950. There, she focused on painting, showing her art often in Mexico and other countries, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. She was even offered a very important art award, the Premio Nacional de Arte, but she chose not to accept it.

Cordelia Urueta's Life Story

Cordelia Urueta was born on September 16, 1908, in Coyoacán. At that time, Coyoacán was a separate town from Mexico City. Her family was full of smart people: writers, artists, diplomats, and even filmmakers. Her father, Jesús Urueta Siqueiros, was an art critic and a diplomat.

Her mother, Tarsila Sierra, was the daughter of a journalist. She was also the niece of Justo Sierra, a famous educator who taught Cordelia. Cordelia was also a cousin of the well-known painter David Alfaro Siqueiros. Her sister, Margarita Urueta, later became a famous writer for plays.

Growing Up During the Mexican Revolution

Cordelia grew up during the Mexican Revolution. This was a big time of change in Mexico. Her father was very involved in trying to bring different groups together after the leader Porfirio Díaz was removed from power. He worked in many government jobs and also wrote a lot.

Their home was also where a magazine called Revista Moderna was made. Cordelia loved looking at the pictures in the magazine. She also enjoyed the many books in her family's library. Her father even had a collection of copies of old European sculptures.

Early Art Talent and Health Challenges

Cordelia couldn't remember when she first started drawing. She mostly copied art she saw in books, and she especially loved the works by Tiziano. She was even expelled from school when she was young! After that, her father hired the best painting teacher he could find for her.

Through her father, she met Dr. Atl, who she called "Uncle Murillo." He was the first person to truly see her talent after looking at some of her portraits.

In 1919, her family moved to Buenos Aires because her father got a job there as a diplomat. But they came back to Mexico after her father died in December 1920. Cordelia was only eleven years old.

Returning to Mexico, she felt very sad for a long time because of her father's death. She didn't eat much, which worried her doctors. They told her to take long walks. Her family was also much poorer and lived in a smaller house. All of this, along with her sadness, made her very sick with anemia. Her doctors told her to walk, so she often walked along Paseo de la Reforma to the Alameda Central park.

Learning and Meeting Other Artists

In the 1920s, an artist named Alfredo Ramos Martínez started an outdoor painting school in Churubusco. Cordelia took classes there. She really liked drawing, and she often drew portraits of her friends and the people who worked for her family.

Cordelia said that her time at this school was very important. It taught her how valuable it was to paint about Mexican themes and people. It also showed her that art was a real job, not just a hobby.

Her health continued to be poor. In 1929, her mother took her to New York to visit a relative. There, she met a poet named José Juan Tablada, who was a distant relative. He introduced her to Alma Reed, who owned an art gallery called Delfic Studios. Alma Reed was known for promoting Mexican art. Reed invited Cordelia to show her art in a group exhibition with famous artists like José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo. But after this, her health made her stop painting for a while. Still, Orozco said good things about her work.

In 1932, she returned to art as an art teacher for the Secretaría de Educación Pública (Public Education Ministry). Through this job, she started to meet many important Mexican artists. These included Leopoldo Méndez, Juan Soriano, Carlos Mérida, María Izquierdo, Francisco Gamboa, and Pastor Velázquez.

Because she hadn't gone to art school for a long time, she used her connections to learn. She learned a lot from Gustavo Montoya, who had studied at the Academy of San Carlos. At Pastor Velazquez's art studio, she was allowed to draw the models he used. She even rented a studio space with Montoya and two other artists, even though her family wasn't happy about it.

Life in Paris and New York

In 1938, Cordelia used her family's connections to get a job at the Mexican embassy in Paris. While getting ready for the trip, Montoya asked her to marry him. She said yes, but only if he came with her.

In Paris, they met her cousin, David Alfaro Siquieros. They spent time with him and other artists in the city's cafes. Their time in Paris helped both Cordelia and Gustavo grow as artists.

Just before World War II started, the embassy staff in Paris had to leave. Cordelia and Montoya were moved to the New York consulate. In New York, Cordelia became very interested in the art of Picasso and Braque.

Return to Mexico and Later Life

She returned to Mexico for good to become a professional painter. She painted her best works in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. From that time until she passed away, she had many intellectual and artist friends. These included famous writers like Elena Poniatowska and Carlos Fuentes, and artists like Juan Soriano and María Izquierdo.

In 1965, she and Montoya divorced after twenty-six years of marriage. This made her very sad.

Cordelia Urueta passed away at age 87 on November 3, 1995, after being sick for a long time. She was buried at Panteón Jardin in Mexico City.

Cordelia Urueta's Career

Cordelia Urueta was a painter, a teacher, a diplomat, and someone who helped promote art. She was also a founding member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, which is an important group for Mexican artists.

She worked as an art teacher starting in 1932. She stopped teaching in 1938 when she moved to Paris.

Her art career was on hold until 1950. That's when she and her husband came back to Mexico. She then dedicated herself to painting and showing her art. Her first show was with the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana in 1950. Her family friend and supporter, Dr. Atl, wrote the introduction for the catalog of this event.

From the 1950s to the 1960s, she had many exhibitions of her work. She showed her art in Mexico and in other countries like France, Jerusalem, Scandinavia, Peru, Honduras, Japan, and New York. In 1967, she had a big solo exhibition at the Galería de Arte Mexicano. Then, in 1970, she had another exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno. This museum also held a special show of her past works in 1985.

Awards and Recognition

Her best work is thought to be from the late 1950s and early 1960s. She won awards at important art shows, like the Interamericana de Pintura and the VI Bienal in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1961.

She was a featured artist in a book called "Cien años de la pintura Mexicana" (One Hundred Years of Mexican Painting) in 1967. Her art also appeared in other books with names like Engranaje, Las Muertes, Forma ancetrales, Antagonismo, En la calle, Tierra quemada, and Petroleo. Most of these were published between 1975 and 1981.

She famously turned down the Premio Nacional de Arte, which is a very important national art award. She said that the word "homage" (meaning a special honor) had become disliked.

Today, her work can be seen in the permanent collection of the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.

Cordelia Urueta's Art Style

Even though Cordelia Urueta wasn't fully part of Mexico's main art scene, her work often fit into the popular Mexican School of Painting. This was especially true for her earlier works, which often focused on portraits.

Her goal as an artist was to find her own unique style. She succeeded in creating many new and interesting things in her art. For example, figures in her paintings eventually disappeared, and the focus shifted to textures and colors.

She believed that using color was the best way to show her feelings. Her art is most known for its amazing use of color. She is considered one of Mexico's "great coloristas" (masters of color). Her later work became more abstract, meaning it used shapes and colors to represent ideas rather than realistic images. However, she still often included hints of the human form. Her abstract style showed influence from the artist Rufino Tamayo. She has been called the "Grande Dame of Abstract Art" because of her important contributions to this style.