My origins as a sculptor of fantastic realism – Germán Arzate Garza

My name is German Arzate, and I am a Mexican sculptor who has explored the theme of duality in different works that express different ideas depending on the viewer’s perspective. I was born in Mexico City on April 18, 1967, being the eldest of a family of 4 children.

When I was young, the only way to have access to art was through my mother, who has always been a lover of Mexican sculpture and fine arts. She would always say, “we have to go to the museum,” “we have to see this work, listen to this music.” My mother was my only approach. I liked books, but there weren’t many art books, there was no internet or television, so art in my early years was scarce or nonexistent, much less was it possible to study to be part of the list of Mexican sculptors.

The only sculptures and works of art were in encyclopedias where I began to admire the great masters of art that inspired me. I was a fan of Salvador Dalí’s work, I wondered how it was possible to do different things, and for many years he was my artistic hero until I met Remedios Varo.

My father could draw well but in a very primitive and self-taught way, he painted landscapes and somehow another family member had talents, but no one had tried sculpture before.

I had to understand that being a Mexican sculptor was a gift that had been given to me. Always, since I was a child, I was drawn to the sculpting process.

If I was given a school assignment, I not only made little animals but all kinds of shapes, it was through play that I learned to be a sculptor. At the supermarket, I didn’t ask for candy, I asked for modeling clay to seal pipes and make shapes and models. I remember that my first pieces as a Mexican sculptor made by me, I made them between the ages of 7 and 9. I adapted everything I found as a tool: a popsicle stick, a screw, and even in some sculptures, I used human hair that I asked for from my aunts, my sister, or my mother.

This innocent way of being allowed me a lot of freedom. Art classes or sculpture academies were not in fashion. I started sculpting and seeing what kind of knives I could use to make things. Everything was taken by me from the kitchen or when I went to the hardware store or saw sharp knives it was interesting for me to find things that could serve me, no family member helped me, so I could see the way to sculpt and shape things on my own. I never had the culture of going to school or taking art courses, I just found ways and means to do things.

One of my first carvings is in wood, and I expressed a feeling of adolescence, which was loneliness, I drew a woman with crossed arms, looking down, I always admired the human figure, I did a carving and another one in wood a little more advanced where I was playing with the wood’s form and made the shapes as aesthetic as possible, when I received comments, it was interesting for a work of an adolescent who instead of watching TV was carving wood or while watching a movie I kept carving and making a mess all the time.

I was starting to feel like a true Mexican sculptor.

I have said that I am a Mexican sculptor of duality. Duality has always been and has never ceased to be present, I have seen it in the form of a cloud, I have seen it in plants; in trees, I have found faces, in the sky many things, figures, shapes, spots on a wall that for me are faces or pieces. At first, I thought it was something strange, that there was something different about me, a way of seeing that I didn’t understand. Later on, I began to enjoy it, and now I laugh at how I can see some pieces and from another side, a different figure with its own meaning, I wanted my work to be poetic, exquisite to the eye, for the form.

That’s what I like, and duality has always caught my attention; everything is dual in this life, and our mission is to find symbiosis between one side and the other. Being the oldest in my family, I had to work and study medicine to subsist. My family was fine for a while, and then we lost everything thanks to stupid devaluations and political maneuvers. We have suffered government attacks on the economy and then due to an accident of my father, I had to move forward with my profession.

For many years I could never set up a sculptor’s studio, now I have just started working with foundries, and the process is constantly being carried out, the assembly is already in shape, and I can develop many pieces, modeling, shapes, waxing, carvings for originals, or assembly. This is what is always done continuously, and unfortunately, not all Mexican sculptors have that possibility, so I am very grateful for God’s blessings.

The world is cruel to the artist and a little more so as a Mexican sculptor. It is too overwhelming. Nowadays, if you want to get ahead, you are not competing against your neighborhood or the block, you are now competing against artists from around the world. Now you can lose awards against a Russian artist just for being Russian, but also a Mexican can also triumph in Japan.

You must be aware if you want to live from art, it may be that you love doing it, but it is important to ask the new Mexican sculptor: Are you sure? Are you willing to go through frustrations, hunger, or shortcomings? The artist cannot lack a business vision either; you must have a vision because art is a business, it is not just a manifestation.

You have to be methodical, follow protocols, and follow standards, be methodical about what you do, money is important, calculate your financial balance. The Mexican sculptor should not be at odds with money; art is not just expression, it is also administration. It is not easy to be a Mexican sculptor while developing in a professional world. It is a demanding world, consumerism is impressive. You have to be very clear if your goal is art, you have to follow a dream, it is a romance, between you and art, a swing of giving and withholding.

You must find an art that also helps you live, depending on whether you like your work or not. I like surgery, and I make sculptures in the mouths of human beings, in their teeth and their smile, that has allowed me to be successful and with that, I nourish art. I want to show as a legacy everything that I am passionate about, and it is that personal legacy that I am in love with.

I am a proud Mexican sculptor representing Mexico. This country is immensely rich in culture, and many of the Mesoamerican motifs are present in my work.

I am a passionate Mexican sculptor about life, about love, about everything around me. I am always looking for the best, I am an eternal seeker of gadgets, a seeker of situations, a seeker of pastimes that always bring me good, reading, sports, and everything technological, I love it. Everything outside in nature is always part of me, any situation or feeling catches my attention.

This is German Arzate, Mexican sculptor, and proud to be one.