Agustín Lazo Adalid was a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 artist, scenic painter, costume designer

Costume Designer

A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...

 and dramaturg. He is considered as pioneer of surrealism

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 in Mexican art

Mexican art

Mexican art consists of the various visual and plastic arts which developed over the geographical area now known as Mexico. The development of these arts roughly follow the history of Mexico, divided into the Mesoamerican era, the colonial period, with the period after the gaining of Independence...

 by many art researchers.

Biography

Lazo came of notable Mexican families on both' sides. He visited the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria

Escuela Nacional Preparatoria

The Escuela Nacional Preparatoria , the oldest senior high school system in Mexico, belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico , opened its doors on February 1, 1868. It was founded by Gabino Barreda, M.D., following orders of then President of Mexico Benito Juárez...

, and got his paint training at open-air painting school Escuela al Aire Libre de Pintura in the Santa Anita quarter, Iztapalapa

Iztapalapa

Iztapalapa is one of the Federal District of Mexico City’s 16 boroughs, located on the east side of the entity. The borough is named after and centered on the formerly independent municipality of Iztapalapa, which is officially called Iztapalapa de Cuitláhuac for disambiguation purposes...

, which was founded by Alfredo Ramos Martínez

Alfredo Ramos Martínez

Alfredo Ramos Martínez was a painter and muralist who lived and worked in Mexico, Paris, and Los Angeles...

 in 1913. Together with Rufino Tamayo

Rufino Tamayo

Rufino Tamayo was a Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, painting figurative abstraction with surrealist influences....

, Julio Castellanos

Julio Castellanos

Julio Castellanos was a Mexican painter and engraver.- Biography :Castellanos matriculated the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1918, where he studied under Saturnino Herrán and Leandro Izaguirre, together with Agustín Lazo, Rufino Tamayo and Leopoldo Méndez...

 and Gabriel Fernández Ledesma

Gabriel Fernández Ledesma

Gabriel Fernández Ledesma was a Mexican painter, printmaker, sculptor, graphic artist, writer and teacher. He has been described as one of the most prolific artists in Mexican modern art.-Biography:...

 he visited the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes

Academy of San Carlos

The Academy of San Carlos is located at 22 Academia Street in just northeast of the main plaza of Mexico City. It was the first major art academy and the first art museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1781 as the School of Engraving and moved to the Academia Street location about 10 years later...

 after 1917. During this time he assisted Saturnino Herrán

Saturnino Herrán

Saturnino Herrán Guinchard was a Mexican painter. His mother's name was Josefa Guinchard. In 1897 he took private drawing lessons in his native city and in 1901 entered the Aguascalientes Academy of Science. He took classes with José Inés Tovilla and Severo Amador, who taught him drawing and...

. In 1922 he travelled to Europe for his first time, where he visited museums in France, Italy, Germany and Belgium, and mingled with people of the avantgarde movement there. Meanwhile he returned to Mexico, where he exhibited in 1926, before he moved to Paris, where he lived from 1928 to 1930 once more. Obviously European painting influenced his work until the mid 1940s. His style of theater works is often compared with Celestino Gorostiza

Celestino Gorostiza

Celestino Gorostiza Alcalá was a Mexican theater and cine playwright, director and dramatist.- Biography :...

's style. Lazo was member of the "Grupo sin Grupo" of the Los Contemporáneos

Los Contemporáneos

Los Contemporáneos can refer to a Mexican modernist group, active in the late twenties and early thirties, as well as to the literary magazine which served as the group's mouthpiece and artistic vehicle from 1928 to 1931...

. As scenic painter and costume designer he worked in Mexico City at the Ulises

Teatro Ulises

The Teatro Ulises was an experimental theater, located in the calle de Mesones 42 of Mexico City, that was established around 1927/1928 by Antonieta Rivas Mercado, daughter of the architect Antonio Rivas Mercado, and further members of the group Los Contemporáneos...

experimental theater and at the Orientación

Teatro de Orientación

The Teatro de Orientación was a modern theater in Mexico City, that was established in 1932, and existed until 1938.Most of the theater group members, which was directed by Celestino Gorostiza, were members of the Los Contemporáneos group, and were members of the former Teatro Ulises before. In...

theater, as well as in Chihuahua at the Teatro Hidalgo. He taught painting at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda"

Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda"

La Esmeralda - National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking is a Mexican art school located in Mexico City....

 and at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. Lazo was lover of the poet and playwright Xavier Villaurrutia

Xavier Villaurrutia

Xavier Villaurrutia y González was a Mexican poet and playwright, whose most famous works are the short theatrical dramas, called Autos profanos, compiled in the work Poesía y teatro completos published in 1953....

. After Villaurrutia's death Lazo stopped painting and writing. Posthumously his paintings were exhibited in the Museo Nacional de Arte

Museo Nacional de Arte

The Museo Nacional de Arte is the Mexican national art museum, located in the historical center of Mexico City. The museum is housed in a neoclassical building at No. 8 Tacuba, Col. Centro, Mexico City. It includes a large collection representing the history of Mexican art from the mid-sixteenth...

in 1982.