Gerardo Cantu (1934)

Born in Nueva Rosita, Coahuila on May 12th 1934. Cantú studied painting at the taller de Artes Plasticas of the Universidad de Nuevo Leon and later at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura La Esmeralda in Mexico City. With the help of a scholarship, he went to Prague to continue studying. He spent 4 years living here and in Paris while also traveling throughout Europe. Upon his return to Monterrey Mexico he started working as professor of the same university he graduated from a few years before. In 1964, Gerardo Cantú moved to Mexico City to work with Luis Covarrubias at the Museo de Antropología e Historia and the Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico with other great masters like Rufino Tamayo, Jorge Gonzalez Camarena, Jose Chavez Morado, Alfredo Zalce, Leonora Carrington, Mathias Goeritz y Raul Anguiano. During 1979 and 1980 he held a position as a professor at La Esmeralda and in 1985 he moved back to Monterrey where a year later he was named Director of Fine Arts at the Instituto de Cultura de Nuevo Leon. In 1987 he was appointed as director of the Taller de Experimentacion Plastica del ICNL. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in Mexico and abroad earning him scores of accolades such as the Premio UANL a las Artes 2011. Today, he spends his time between his homes in Monterrey and Mexico City.