The painter, draftsman, set designer, actor and singer Antonio Suárez, a cultivator of fantastic realism, more than the surreal, according to the art critic Berta Taracena, died on May 5, at the age of 81.
Born on February 3, 1943 in Mil Cumbres, Michoacán, in a logging camp, its forested landscapes nourished his soul. As a teenager he studied painting with Jorge Quiroz; then, in France, with Michelle Dessene; However, he never attended any academy or official painting schools. Before leaving for France in 1964 to study painting, Suárez collaborated on some murals at the National Museum of Anthropology.
in his book The fantastic realism of Antonio Suárez (Nacional Financiera, 1991), Taracena writes that the trip helped him value the mythical places of his childhood, dream scenarios in which as a child and adolescent he began to see and feel life and become aware of himself. The countryside of the Michoacan regions, the old and venerable architecture, the friendly layout of the small towns and their transparent and pure atmosphere, took on new profiles and contours to his eyes.
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Returning to Mexico in 1967, it is not surprising that he lived for 10 years in places such as Pátzcuaro, Erongaricuaro and Querétaro. In the same year of his return, Suárez participated in an exhibition of self-portraits at the Museum of the Palace of Fine Arts. I enjoyed special talent for this difficult genre
says Taracena.
They are dialogue
with those portrayed, he stands out particularly in the painting of children. Suárez, who was fascinated by painting children, declared in 1977: I have the opportunity to live with them and their concept of nature, the transformation they make of things through fantasy, is truly fascinating. It is as if they have a purer vision of what we experience daily and they are not shy about expressing it. That is why whenever I draw a child, I first ask him what this or that thing means to him, and depending on what he tells me it is the environment I surround him with.
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Suárez settled in Mexico City until 1977, a situation he took advantage of to study theater with Héctor Azar, with whom he later worked on some of his works. From then on, she developed activities parallel to painting, equally related to the image, such as theater, scenography, lighting for shows, stage setting and illustrations for children’s books.
He acted under the direction of Luis de Tavira in the play Leoncio and Lena. Between 1982 and 1983 he performed with the dancer Pilar Rioja in the show Goblin’s game and theoryfor whom, five years later, he would design the lighting of the work Arabesque.
In 1985 he wrote the script, created the scenery and acted in Recordando a Kurt Weilla show by Leszek Zawadka (Warsaw, 1953), which had more than 300 performances in theaters in Mexico City and the states.
Living in Mexico City did not change substantial
his way of feeling towards his state of origin, as he continued with his tribute to the blue fields of Michoacán
says Taracena. For the author, the sense of sharp social criticism
dominates in works like Peacock Arturo and his companions from the Picolino circus, Take off you to put me on, the wave arrived y ¡Zoom! His study of geometry and his search for new scales and volumes led him to practice miniature for some years.
In The realism… Taracena collects a comment from the painter Leonel Maciel: When I saw Antonio Suárez’s painting for the first time, I felt light in my eyes and air in my lungs. It made me nostalgic for places I knew and that I have never known where, and this continues to happen to me to this day.
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The photographer and friend Rogelio Cuéllar expresses: When one observes the work of Antonio Suárez, whether drawing or graphite or oil painting, one is not surprised by the fineness of the line or by the exuberance he reaches through color. The ability that his work has to involve our emotion in the universes he creates is surprising.
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Suárez studied guitar with Víctor Reza and sang with Leszek Zawadka. In 2009 she began singing in different forums in Mexico City, especially Mexican music in all its genres, especially the regional music of Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Yucatán.