Hombre Corriendo; Germán Cueto

Hombre Corriendo, (Man Running) by Germán Cueto is one of just three sculptures by invitational artists for the Ruta de la Amistad. The route was developed as part of “Cultural Olympiad” to commemorate the 1968 Olympics. The other 22 “stations” of the route represent friendship among participating countries around the world

The work stands some six meters high. In bronze, it’s simply two intertwined forms which combine visually to represent a figure in movement. Mounted on the volcanic rock common to the area, the work’s rough finish serves as a suitable introduction to the Pedregal de San Ángel Ecological Area.

• Germán Cueto (1883–1975) is, even today, more associated with movements in Europe during the interwar period. Mexican, his initial studies in chemistry were interrupted by the Mexican Revolution. He worked in Spain during those early years and returned as an artist to Mexico in 1918. By 1923, he was a founding member of the Stridentist movement.
• Founded in Mexico City, the Stridentist artists and writers began holding events on the  Avenido Jalisco (today’s Avenida Álvaro Obregón). The came to be headquartered in Xalapa at the University of Veracruz. Poet Manuel Maples Arce was the Secretary of Government of the state of Veracruz at that time. The movement shared some characteristics with European abstract movements like Cubism, and Italian Futurism, and with social components similar to those of Dadaism and Spanish literary Ultraism. The Revolution in Mexico had given the movement a strong concern for applied action.
• Cueto returned to Europe from 1927 to 1932, and thereafter, his work remained at a considerable remove from the main thrust of 20th-century Mexican art dominated by Muralism.

The Hombre Corriendo was restored in 2007 and is currently maintained by the UNAM. Just north of the main entrance to the Estadio Olímpico, it’s a seldom scene landmark on Insurgentes Sur.