By Natalie Taylor
It is amazing how serendipitous meetings often lead to new discoveries, even new friendships. A few weeks ago I was at the Biblioteca when I overheard a woman speaking about placing an ad inside the framed display case. Curious, I asked what she was advertising. She told me about a new exhibit of her father’s artworks at Angela Peralta, and invited me to come to the opening. This is how I found out about Jose Nicolas Cuellar, a San Miguel de Allende native son, who Diego Rivera prophesied would become “a monster of painting.”
Dr. Hortensia Cuellar Perez, his daughter, spoke with great love and admiration about her father. He was the youngest child in his family, born on September 10, 1927. Because the other siblings were so much older, he grew up almost as an only child, in a magical world he created in his own head. His talent in drawing and painting was recognized, and encouraged by the nuns in his elementary school. They fostered his artistic abilities by asking him to draw whenever possible. He soon became known as the “art kid” in his class. He also became known as “a good boy,” always on good behavior, and Hortensia claims she still has certificates from his school days documenting this. Most of all, Nicolas poured his heart and soul into his paintings. One of the most beautiful statements I have ever heard was the words of Nicolas’ father. Whenever he returned from work, he would turn to his youngest son and say: Encuéntrame en el tiempo y dame tu pensamiento—Find me in Time, and give me your thoughts. I cannot think of more powerful, or encouraging words from a parent than these, and I have no doubt that they became part of his stimulus and inspiration.
Formal schooling for Nicolas ended with secundaria, and he moved on to making a living at whatever odd jobs his older brothers found for him. He did a stint working at the Fabrica Aurora when it was still a textile factory—an interesting footnote since his work was eventually exhibited in one of the premier art galleries there. In 2016 he had an exhibition in a show titled “Weaver of Dreams,” at the Scott Foreman gallery.
When he was 21, Nicolas married the love of his life—Maria Socorro Gonzalez “Coco,” and they began a family; she was only 18 at the time. They went to Mexico City and Nicolas was accepted at the renowned art school Academia San Carlos, a great honor and an acknowledgement of his artistic talent. Unfortunately, his training at San Carlos was short lived because his mother became ill, and he and Coco had to return to San Miguel de Allende.
Instead of an end to his artistic career, San Miguel proved to be a godsend. Nicolas met Stirling Dickinson who was impressed with his work, and offered him a scholarship at Instituto Allende. Here he became surrounded by great artists like James Pinto, Romeo Tabuena, Jack Baldwin, and Jose Chavez Morado. These renowned artists had formed “The Key Club,” a private group to which only the best students were invited—Nicolas was honored with an invitation. With the encouragement of these artists, Nicolas applied for a scholarship at the Brooklyn Museum of Fine Arts, and was accepted in 1959. But in 1963, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Nicolas returned to Mexico.
With Coco, and their six children, they settled in a house on Jesus Street, where Nicolas also had his studio. But he was not a great promoter of his art; instead, he preferred to sit in the Jardin and talk to people. He tried many different artistic styles throughout his life, from realism to expressionism, to surrealism, and even abstract paintings. When he died in 2010, he left many surreal representations of life in Mexico in his paintings, and particularly of San Miguel de Allende as it was when he was a child. One particular symbol of San Miguel became almost like a second signature in Cuellar’s paintings—the Parroquia. You will find it as a large, central figure in some of the works, sometimes almost hidden off to the side, or even as a small toy-like structure within a fantastical backdrop. The Parroquia is emblematic of San Miguel, as much as Jose Nicolas Cuellar himself, whom the city named “the San Miguel painter for the world.” You can see his work at www.cuellargallery.com
Natalie Taylor: BA in English Lit and Journalism, Loyola University, Chicago, 1995. MFA in Creative Writing, Vermont College, Montpelier, VT, 1999. Published writer, editor, journalist. Spanish teacher in the US, English teacher in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Translator. www.natalietaylor.org Contact: tangonata@gmail.com
