Gustavo Arias Murueta (May 26, 1923 – April 15, 2019) was a Mexican painter, sculptor and poet, a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana best known for his work in drawing, graphic arts and oil painting. He originally studied architecture at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México where he met artists such as Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco. In the 1950s, he began to produce artworks, with his first exhibition in 1961. From then until his death he had a career as an artist with individual and collective exhibitions in both Mexico and abroad. While his work had been heavily influenced by Orozco, he was considered part of the Generación de la Ruptura movement.
Life
Gustavo Arias Murueta was born in Los Angeles, California and was of Spanish descent. His parents were Esteban Arias Renovato and Elisa Murueta Andrade. In 1934, he entered primary school in Torreón, Coahuila, but changed schools when the family moved to Mexico City in 1939. He entered the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1946 to study architecture where he met a number of important painters such as Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco. He married Lourdes Chávez Correa in 1949. The couple had four children: Lila (1953), Gustavo (1954), Hugo (1956) and Livia (1965).
He was an artist, writer, sculptor and poet. He began creating isolated drawings and studies and experimental theater around 1956, with his first exhibitions in the early 1960s. He lived in Europe and the United States and traveled in Asia as well as some other countries, mostly to visit museums and study the works of great masters. However, from 1974 until his death in 2019, he was based in Mexico City. He died on April 15, 2019, aged 95.
Among his teachers was Japanese artist Yukio Fukasawa, through a seminar on printmaking in Mexico City.
Career
Most of his career had been focused on drawing, graphic arts and oil painting although he was a poet and sculptor. In 1944, he began working in a print shop which would have an impact on his artistic career. He began his career as a professional artist in the early 1960s, established his own studio in 1974 and traveling to Europe in 1976 to study the works of masterpieces in museums there.
Arias Murueta had exhibitions of his art beginning in 1961, with individual venues such as Galería Chaputepec (1962), San Diego Fort in Acapulco (1963), Institutio Mexicano Norteamericano de Relaciones Culturales, Mexico City (1963)(1967), Pacific Art Gallery, Los Angeles (1965), Galería La Selva, Cuernavaca (1966), Instituto Cultural Mexicano Israeli, Mexico City (1966)(1971), Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, Mexico City (1968), Zegry Gallery, New York (1970), Galería La Bola, Mexico City (1970), Galería Castano Ware, Mexico City (1972), Palacio de Bellas Artes (1973), Sol de Río Gallery, San Antonio (1974), Galería Ponce, Mexico City (1976), Galería Summa Artis, Mexico City (1978), Club de Golf Bellavista, Mexico City (1978)(1979)(1982), Galería Kin (1980)(1982), Universidad de Guanajuato (1980), Alianza Francesas de Polanco, Mexico City (1980), Galerías Liverpool, Mexico City (1981), Gerhard Wurzer Gallery, Houston (1981)(1982)(1985)(1989), Feria de Huamantla, Tlaxcala (1981), Paris Art Center (1983), Galeria Misrachi, Mexico City (1983)(1989)(1992), Museo de la Ciudad de México (1985), Carolyn Hill Gallery, New York (1985)(1987), Cuajimalpa Cultural Center, Mexico City (1985) . His latest exhibitions include a retrospective of his work at the Club Piso 51 at the Torre Mayor in Mexico City in November 2010, and an exhibition called Cosmogonía at the German Club of Mexico City in 2011.
He participated in numerous collective exhibitions starting in 1961 including those in the Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, University of Concepción, Chile, the Mexican embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, Museo de Arte Moderno, the cultural program of the Mexico City Olympic Games Casa de las Américas in Havana, Texas Institute Educational Development in San Antonio, Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Centro Experimental de Arte Gráfico in Madrid. In March 2012, he participated in a historical collective exhibition called "Shape possibilities, visual Anthology among centuries" (Las posibilidades de la forma, Antología visual de entresiglos) with Mexican Masters Gilberto Aceves Navarro, José Luis Cuevas, Sebastián, Manuel Felguérez, Roger von Gunten, Luis López Loza, Vicente Rojo Almazán and Francisco Toledo .