Henri Cueco

Henri Cueco was born on 19 October 1929 in Uzerche, Corrèze, a rural part of France.[1][2][3] His father, Vicente Cueco, was an immigrant from Spain.[4][5] His mother was French.[5] He was essentially self-taught,[6] though his father also taught him how to paint from the age of 13.[4][5]

Cueco began his career as a landscape painter in the 1950s.[4] He became a figurative painter, associated with the school of Nouvelle figuration in 1960s.[1][2][3] His artwork was political, and he was a critic of materialism and minimalism.[2] He did paintings of hunting dogs and snakes, followed by 150 still lifes, or "portraits," of potatoes.[2][4]

In 1969–1970, Cueco co-founded an artists collective called Coopérative des Malassis with Lucien Fleury, Jean-Claude Latil, Michel Parré and Gérard Tisserand.[1][4][7] Together, they designed a politically satirical fresco called Le Grand Méchoui in 1972.[7] They designed Qui tue ? ou l’affaire Gabrielle Russier in 1973.[4] They also designed Radeau de la Méduse ou la Dérive de la société,[4] a decor on consumerism in the Grand'Place, Grenoble, in 1973–1975.[7] They designed Les affaires reprennent in 1977.[4]

His work was first exhibited at the Salon de la Jeune peinture,[2] followed by the Atelier populaire.[3] In 1970, he exhibited The Red Men, a series of paintings on the Cold War (including the May 1968 events, the Vietnam War and the Red Scare), at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.[3] In 1986, when he exhibited an irreverent portrait of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Mao Zedong in Beijing, China, he was asked to take it down.[8] The painting included the following quotation by Henri Jeanson: "Capitalism is the exploitation of men by men. Communism? It is the opposite."[8]

In 1997, Cueco exhibited paintings inspired by Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne at the Centre d'art contemporain in Meymac.[4] In 2010, he exhibited nudes in the manner of Ingres at the Musée Ingres in Montauban.[9] He exhibited his work at the Musée d'art et d'archéologie du Périgord in 2014, when he was the guest of honour at the Expoésie Festival.[10] His last exhibition was held at La Maison Rouge in February 2017.[1]

Cueco was the founder of the Association Pays Paysage in Uzerche.[6] He was a contributor to the French radio station France Culture, especially its programmes called Les Papous dans la tête and Les Décraqués.[2][4] He was the author of several books,[2] including novels and collections of essays.[6] One of his novels was made into a 2007 film directed by Jean Becker, Conversations with My Gardener.[5]

Cueco was an avid reader of Marxist texts.[3] He was member of the French Communist Party from 1956 to 1976.[3] He also joined the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), one of the main labour unions in France.[2] With Ernest Pignon-Ernest, he co-founded the Syndicat national des artistes plasticiens CGT in 1977.[2] However, by the 1980s, he had become a libertarian.[8]

Cueco had a wife, Marinette Cueco, and a son, Pablo Cueco, a professional zarb player.[11] He resided between Vigeois in his native Corrèze and Paris.[2][3]

Cueco died of a kidney infection but was weakened by Alzheimer's disease on 13 March 2017 in Paris.[1][2][8] He was 87.

• Cueco, Henri; Gaudibert, Pierre (1988). L'arène de l'art. Paris: Galilée. ISBN 9782718603261. OCLC 932364809.
• Cueco, Henri (1993). Journal d'atelier, 1988–1991 ou Le journal d'une pomme de terre. Paris: ENSB-A. ISBN 9782840560050. OCLC 489576429.
• Cueco, Henri (1997). Comment grossir sans se priver. Paris: Atelier Bordas. OCLC 223004917.
• Cueco, Henri (2000). Dessine-moi un bouton. Paris: Seuil. ISBN 9782020399425. OCLC 468101838.
• Cueco, Henri (2000). L'Inventaire des queues de cerises. Paris: Seuil. ISBN 9782020399401. OCLC 468101921.
• Cueco, Henri (2001). La Petite Peinture. Paris: Cercle d'art. ISBN 9782702206317. OCLC 468540096.
• Cueco, Henri (2004). Dialogue avec mon jardinier. Paris: Seuil. ISBN 9782020669573. OCLC 912475072.
• Cueco, Henri (2005). Le Collectionneur de collections. Paris: Seuil. ISBN 9782020813563. OCLC 419989440.
• Cueco, Henri (2012). L'Été des serpents. Paris: JBz. ISBN 9782755608533. OCLC 771282138.
• Cueco, Henri (2013). Passage des astragales. Montrouge: Bayard. ISBN 9782227486065. OCLC 851910834.