Gloria Calero Sierra
Gloria Calero Sierra(1906–1990) was a Mexican artist and the wife of artistFederico Cantú Garza.Her work was influenced bysurrealismandMexican muralism.
Art[edit]
Calero began her art career when she was thirty years old. Her major influences were the artists of the surrealism movement and Mexican muralism. She stated that one of her biggest influences was the work ofJesús Guerrero Galván.[1]
She was a founding member of theSalón de la Plástica Mexicana,which was one of the first exhibitors of her work.[1]
Her work can be found in collections such as those ofMacKinley Helm,Ali Chumacero,Licio Lagos,Bernard Lewin,and the Cantú family.[1]
Biography[edit]
Calero was born in 1906 during thePorfirio Díazregime, into a liberal and well-connected family. She was the granddaughter ofJusto Sierraand cousin ofJavier Barros Sierra.[1][2]Her parents were Manuel Calero and Luz Sierra de Calero, who supported her artistic inclinations. Her family's wealth and social status made it relatively easy to develop her talent early. She was educated in thefine artsand culture, and learned to speak English fluently.[1]
During her childhood, she lost her hearing due to an illness.[1]
She married a distant cousin,Chano Urueta,who was a film actor and director. WithCordelia Urueta,she frequented cafes and other places popular with artists and writers, such asRenato Leduc,Xavier Villaurrutia,andLuís Cardoza y Aragón.After her friendInés Amoropened a gallery in 1936, Calero met many artists of the Mexican muralism movement, and others such as the poetsAntonin ArtaudandJosé Moreno Villa.[1]
In the early 1930s, Calero and Urueta decided to move to theColonia del Valleneighborhood, to a small house on San Francisco Street. Her landlady and neighbor, Luisa Garza, introduced her to painters and to other friends of her son, Federico Cantú Garza.[1]Cantú and Calero began an affair that ended her marriage after various confrontations. The two married on June 12, 1937, a second marriage for both.[1][2]
From 1938 to 1941, Calero and Cantú lived in New York City and later moved toSan Miguel de Allende,dividing their time between Mexico and the United States.[1]They were considered inseparable, and her image appeared in Cantú's work, such as the Los Altares sculpture at theSecretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes.[2]
After Cantú's death in 1989, Calero fell into depression and months later had a blood clot which required amputation of a limb. She died in 1990.[1]