Juan Cruz Reyes , 1914 - 1991

He was born in Mexico City, January 10, 1914. He studied at the Academia de San Carlos in 1930. Joined the staff of Instituto de Investigaciones Etnográficas. He appointed professor of direct carving in 1937 and collaborated with Guillermo Ruiz until 1970. Lázaro Cárdenas commissioned both to produce many sculptures in Michoacan. The most important was the monument of Morelos on Janitzio Island. In 1938 he traveled to Bogota, Colombia with a sculpture of Benito Juárez donated by the Mexican Government; in Panama he installed a statue of Morelos. In 1940, Cruz Reyes worked as professor with Francisco Zúñiga in the Escuela de Talla Directa. In 1950 awarded the Guggenheim Scholarship with the project “Study for Pre-Hispanic Sculpture and Creativeness”. He moved to New York and exhibited individually in the New School for Social Research. In 1954 won the prize of Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México to sculpt a monument. Cruz Reyes was dedicated to sculpt monumental work commissioned by several Mexican institutions. In 1986 Japan government acquired his sculpture Paz maternal for the “Street of Sculptures” in Nagoya. All his work reflects sensuality and erotism as an iconography created during the 19th century by Mexican painters and sculptors but hidden until then. Died in 1991 in Mexico City.

Mujer con chal  (1948) 68 x 30 x 30 cm

Proyecto para Monumento a la bandera  (1948) Bronze 58 x 80 x 30 cm

Xochipilli  (ca. 1940) 80.5 X 31.7 X 20.8 cm.

Busto de Dolores del Río  (ca. 1940) Polychromed ceramic 46 x 50 x 28 cm