page_title: Nicolás Cuéllar
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Nicolás Cuéllar / Life
caption_attribution_description: Español: Nicolás Cuéllar mostrando una de sus obras de tradiciones mexicanas, en la terraza de su casa en San Miguel de Allende
context_page_description: Jesús Nicolás Cuéllar was a Mexican painter who was best known for his surreal and magically themed work as well as his mentorship of the artistic community in his hometown of San Miguel de Allende. Some of his early work was noticed by Diego Rivera, who declared that the artist would be “a monster of painting.” Although he studied and exhibited abroad and his works can be found in collections in various parts of the world, Cuéllar dedicated most of his career in his studio in San Miguel de Allende.
context_section_description: Nicolás Cuéllar was an artist, who was born and lived his entire life in the same house in the center of San Miguel de Allende (2ª. Calle de Jesús # 42).  He is one of the few of this artists’ enclave who is from the town. He began painting by copying religious images, in part because his mother was religious and because the nuns at his school encouraged him, when they knew his skills with pencil and oil.
  He initially went to study art at the Academy of San Carlos in México City, in 1954, but left shortly after to study at the Instituto Allende from 1955 to 1957, which suited his disposition better and considered it a major element in his development.  In 1962, he received a scholarship to study at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, in New York. There he attended the class of Mark Samenfeld and had some exhibitions and was commissioned to paint two murals at the Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. After that, he got a teaching position in Maine. He went back to Mexico in 1963, shortly before finishing his studies. He rejected a teaching position at the Brooklyn Museum Art School because he was disappointed for the J.F. Kennedy assassination, but at the same time he was with new ideas and knowledge. When he returned to Mexico, he traveled all over the country to reencounter his inspiration roots. During and after that time he spent his time painting and experimenting, and he was very impressed by the Mexican old indigenous cultures, so he started archeology studies by himself and got more motifs and feelings to incorporate to his art works. Temporarily, he accepted a teaching position at San Carlos.
  Some time after 72-73, he signed various painting series and some sculptures as Tonatiuh Cuéllar or T. Cuéllar, instead of only Cuéllar. This name is an Aztec word which means Sun. At that time he used to wear white clothes and his daughter remembers him as elegant, preferring light colored clothing and always wearing a hat, which he began wearing in the 1940s to cover the thick hair on his head. Every day the painter would leave his home in San Miguel de Allende to spend time in the main plaza of the city, after painting for several hours in the morning.  Cuéllar developed most of his career in San Miguel de Allende, becoming well-respected in the artistic community as a mentor. His house hosted hundreds of artists and taught many of them. The house hosted a small gallery and studio, where an old Singer sewing machine table covered in a hand painted cloth served as the reception desk. In his later life, he lived with a parakeet and two cocks.
  Cuéllar was married with María Socorro González (named "Coco" for him), and had eight children. He always was very proud of his family
  When he died in San Miguel Allende in 2010, his family was with him.
  In 2012, the city of San Miguel Allende paid tribute to "The painter from San Miguel Allende to the World", at the Angela Peralta Theater.
caption: Artist as a young man in 1957 with painting on the roof of his house in San Miguel de Allende
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