page_title: Guillermo Ceniceros
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Guillermo Ceniceros / Life
caption_attribution_description: Español: Ceniceros y Siqueiros
context_page_description: Guillermo Ceniceros is a Mexican painter and muralist, best known for his mural work in Mexico City, as well as his figurative easel work. He began his mural painting career as an assistant to mural painters such as Federico Cantú, Luis Covarrubias and then David Alfaro Siqueiros who was a mentor and a key influence. Ceniceros is the most notable of Siqueiros' assistants. While he has experimented with abstract expression, his easel work mostly classifies as figurativism and is influenced by the geometrical construct of Mexican muralism. He has had over 300 individual and collective exhibitions in Mexico and the International stage. His work has been recognized by the Mexican Ministry of Culture and several of its institutions. He has painted over 20 large scale Mural Paintings with some of the most notable being the large scale work for the Legislative Palace of San Lazaro as well as his murals in the Metro Subway System. He is a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. In 1995, the State of Durango, Ceniceros' native state, opened to the public the Guillermo Ceniceros Art Museum within the oversight of the Ministry of Culture.
context_section_description: Ceniceros was born in a small village called El Salto, located in the municipality of Pueblo Nuevo in the Mexican state of Durango. His father was a woodworker who made toys and furniture in his workshop.  His father's shop would become an influence in Ceniceros' life long interest in developing his own innovative working tools. When he was twelve the family moved to Monterrey to seek better economic opportunities. There he attended school and when he was fourteen he entered the Fabricación de Máquinas, S.A. (FAMA), a school/business, where he studied industrial drawing. He considers this early training important as it taught him the importance of geometry, use of space and materials.  While at FAMA he met painters Gerardo Cantú and Ignacio Ortiz, and collaborated with them on sketches for publications of Alfonso Reyes, Pedro Garfias and other notable writers.
  In 1955, he enrolled in the Taller de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, graduating in 1958.  At the Taller he met fellow Mexican artist Esther González, whom he married and with whom he has two children.
  In 1962 he moved to Mexico City with the goal of working in the Taller of the Maestro David Alfaro Siqueiros.  He became Siqueiros' first assistant working on his last murals while at the same time working at night on his easel painting work.  Siqueiros supported Ceniceros decision to leave his Taller and supported him in his career until his death in 1974.  By then Ceniceros was already a break thru artist having had several individual exhibitions including the prestigious Palacio De Bellas Artes as well as other recognitions.  Thru the 70's and 80s Ceniceros continued his work with an emphasis on exhibits and exchanges abroad and traveling to Eastern Europe, Cuba, China, Chile, Ecuador, Italy and the United States.  His Mexico City contemporaries and circle would include names that today have become reference such as Sebastian, José Luis Cuevas, Gilberto Aceves Navarro, Benjamin Dominguez, Gustavo Arias Murueta, Byron Galvez, Leonel Maciel among others. In the 70's his Row-House neighbors in the colonia Roma were Francisco Toledo and Alejandro Jodorowski.
  His focus on mural painting is renewed in the mid 80's thru his large scale work in the Metro Subway System with him working on major commissions consistently and into the new century.  While the Mexican school of Muralism had been challenged by the Ruptura members, the interest in Mural painting as a unique national form of expression continues.
  He lives in Mexico City at a studio/home in the Colonia Roma. His home is a frequent gathering place for writers, poets, painters, singers, actors and journalists. He has a strong interest in Spanish language literature. Juan Rulfo who visited Ceniceros' studio several times stated that a number of Ceniceros’ landscapes were reminiscent of the world of Pedro Páramo .  The late poet Luis Rius and Ceniceros often discussed the parallels between painting and writing, with Ceniceros expressing his goal of achieving visual poetry thru his work.
caption: Ceniceros and Siqueiros
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