Gunther Gerzso’s biography would not be complete without a description of the culture where he grew up and lived, the work he wanted to pursue, how a series of circumstances forced him very reluctantly to change his goals, and how he adjusted to become the well known painter that he is.

His Country and His Culture.

As is mentioned in many of the biographies on Gunther Gerzso, he was born in Mexico City in 1915 of Hungarian and German parents. At times, some biographies on the internet mistakenly say that he was a Hungarian artist living in Mexico. But even though his father, Oscar, was from Budapest, Hungary, and Jewish, Gerzso had no memory of him because his father died six months after Gerzso was born. Gerzso was brought up in the German community in Mexico City (in those days it was referred to the German colony). His mother, Dore, a Lutheran, was from Berlin and traveled to Mexico in the early 20th century. In effect, Gerzso’s outlook on life was a mixture of German and Mexican culture, which in turn is a mixture of Spanish and native Mexican (Aztec etc.) cultures. As a result of the Holocaust during Second World War, and his work in the Mexican movie business, he progressively preferred the Mexican way of life. His withdrawal from the German community also was reinforced by marrying, Gene R. Cady Pardee, an American musician and actress from California of a family of lawyers and business people. Even though she was a Democrat, most of her family and relatives were life long Republicans. Some of them served in the U.S. Army or Navy “during the war”.

Gerzso attended the German School in Mexico City, (Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt), and later a Swiss boarding school. He never attended or taught an art school, or university. He got his training as a set designer at the Cleveland Play House in the late 1930’s. Starting in the 1940’s, he became an avid book collector and reader. The topics included art, architecture, literature, poetry, philosophy, and politics (lots of politics). Most of the books were in English, and German. Many of the walls in his house were covered by book cases. Every Saturday morning he would make his rounds to the art supply stores and book shops. When he died, he left approximately 12,000 books.

Large book collections were common among writers and artists such as Gerzso’s friends, Ramon Xirau and Octavio Paz. In Mexico City, there were few public libraries as they were in the United States or Europe.

Gerzso’s friends were primarily artists and intellectuals. He was not interested in business or technology. He was not a “do it yourself-er” and depended on domestic staff to took care of cooking, cleaning and transportation as was customary in Mexico City.

His Story.

Gerzso’s story is about a man whose goal in life was to be a set designer in the theater or the movies. He did not want to be an artist (painter). When the Mexican movie business began to fail in the late 1950’s, he was at a loss as to what to do and went into a deep depression, which I call his “black dog” period. He was about 45 years old. Even though he had been painting on the side since the Cleveland Playhouse days, he was very reluctant to abandon his set designer career and start anew as a painter.

His reluctance to become a full time painter might have been due to one or more of the following:

1-He painted as an exercise in composition and color as a complement to his set design work, and he knew that architects such as Le Corbusier did the same. He was educated about art by his uncle in Switzerland. He was not a “Sunday painter” or a hobbyist but painted while there were no movie projects.

2-He said to his friends such as Ines Amor, that the life of a painter was terrible. A life in which he would be painting alone in his studio instead of participating \in the exciting and glamorous movie projects with all of its stories, designs, producers and actors. When he was offered the job as a set designer on the “Under the Volcano” project, directed by John Huston, he was out of his house like greased lightening.

3-He may have feared failing as an artist. He was already successful as a set designer having won the Ariel, the highest prize in the Mexican movie industry. It was one thing to paint to keep occupied while not at the movie studio. It was another to “find his voice”, or to make something original.

At the time, his fear was well known. At the opening of the exhibition of his paintings at the museum of Bellas Artes, in 1963, he was in a state of near panic during the entire event. He surely would have fled if it were not for the support of his family and friends.

After a couple of years, he overcame his fear by realizing what he wanted to do as an artist. He decided to back to his roots and to basics. He was a mixture of Mexican and German (European) cultures. He accepted that his oil painting technique was evolving to that of traditional European painting. For example, he greatly admired Matthias Grunewald. And he kept exploring his themes which were mostly based on pre-Hispanic Mexican architecture, specifically Altiplano (Toltec, Teotihuacan, Aztec, etc.) and Maya.

And yet it seems that he could no longer give up drafting and designing as he had done in the theater and movies for over 30 years. By looking at his artists and design drawings, it is evident that he found a way to explicitly design his paintings as if they were sets. By the 1970’s and until his death, all paintings, prints, and sculptures have a corresponding set of “construction drawings”. Unless he was “messing around”, he never began to paint without the design drawings or plans.

The designs of his paintings allude to weird dream like walls, walls of jungle, buildings, cities by themselves or in a landscape. He found a way to come full circle to his original goal in life to be a designer, but this time they were of sets of imaginary Mexican places.

Gunther Gerzso was married twice to the same woman, Gene Rilla Cady Pardee. She was born June 1, 1914 in Susanville, California, United States. Her parents were Leon Roy and Clara Pardee Cady. Leon Roy was known in the family as “Ted” owned and ran the water and light company of Susanville which he bought with his father Frank P. Cady in the early 1900’s (ref). Frank Cady was also the town sheriff 1889 to 1892. Clara was of the Pardee family which had moved to California in the second half of the 1800’s. In Susanville, two or three generations of Pardees were lawyers, such as Clara’s brother, Augustus (Gus) and business people. This part of the family were also related to George Pardee, Mayor of Oakland, and the 21st Governor of California. His two surviving daughters Madeline and Helen lived in their home in Oakland until their death. Clara, Gene and other members of the family frequently visited Helen and Madeline, who were always very gracious and jolly.

Gene had two brothers, Donald and Frank who both graduated from Stanford Univerisity. Donald lived most of his life in Susanville and practiced law. Frank, who was known in the family as "Bud", became a movie and TV actor and is well known for his character Sam Drucker in TV series “Green Acres” and “Petticoat Junction”. He acted in many other TV shows and movies, including the movies “Rear Window”, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, “Ace in the Hole” with Kirk Douglas, and “Zandy’s Bride” with Liv Ullmann and Gene Hackman.

Education

Gene Cady attended grade and high schools in Susanville, and then University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA and majored in music. Later, she started her acting career at the Cleveland Play House.

During the late 1960’s, while working at the University of Americas in Mexico City, she decided to return to the University of the Pacific and to get her Masters in Music.

Marriage to Gerzso

While at the Cleveland Playhouse, she met Gerzso and married him the first time and returned to Mexico with him. During World War II, she worked in the press office of the British Embassy and made many friends in the British community (known in those days as the “British colony”).

By 1950, their marriage was failing, so they formally divorced in the early 1950’s for two years. During that time, she returned to Susanville with her two sons and lived with he mother Clara the first year, and then moved to Menlo Park for the second year while she was working at Sunset Magazine. Returning to Mexico, she formally married Gerzso again. Their religious ceremony was at the Anglican Christ Church on the street of Articulo 123.

Acting and Musical Activities

During the 1940’s and 50’s, she acted in several plays organized by the British community. She also continued to perform as a semi professional singer and later learned to play the recorder. She studied and performed with Bernard Krainis of the New York Pro Musica group when it visited Mexico, and she participated in their workshops which were held outside of Mexico city.

The decline of the Mexican movie business progressively reduced the family income. Gene decided to work as a secretary at the Mexico City College located next to the highway Mexico City-Toluca. It was not incorporated into the Mexican educational system via the National University (UNAM), but instead an accredited US institution.

She changed positions by becoming a member of the faculty teaching Music History. By that time she had her Masters in Music. Her friends and colleagues included Ramón Xirau (also her neighbor in San Angel), Toby Joyce Smith, Merle Wachter among others.

Her other musical activities included being choir director at Christ Church on Articulo 123. Several of her British friends from the World War II days were in the choir. One member of the church was John Golding’s father. John was a close friend of Gerzso’s and was considered an expert on Cubism.

By the 1980’s she reduced her appearances as a singer or recorder player. However, she established a recorder music school for young children in San Angel near her house.

Gerzso’s Manager

In addition to her acting and musical activities, Gene Cady was very pragmatic which was due to her upbringing in Susanville. As a teenager, she worked in her father’s water and light business. Having lived through the depression, her parents were very hard working and frugal even though they were well to do. Their attitudes were influenced by their community which depended on logging and ranching. Trailer trucks carrying large logs to the saw mill were seen almost daily on main street. Saloons and some restaurants were frequently full of cowboys.

As Gerzso career as an artist began to stabilize in the mid 1960’s, she began to manage the family’s finances and relations with their clients. In the meantime, the Mexico City College was sold to a group in Puebla and renamed the Universidad de las Americas so she could dedicate herself to the family business full time.

Many if not all of the articles and books on Gerzso do not give enough credit to Gene’s management of Gerzso affairs. It is possible that he would not have been so successful and focused if it were not for his wife. Any time he began to get depressed, she would get him back on track. Any time he got bored -which was every month-, she would encourage him to pursue other media such as prints, stained glass or sculptures, etc. Any time their nest egg was threatened by the many Mexican and US financial crisis of the 1980’s, she found alternatives to safe guard its value.

Gerzso and Gene had no health insurance or any insurance for that matter. Both of their medical and hospital bills in Mexico and the US were paid out of pocket and at the time the bills were presented. Their only credit lines were credit cards which were paid at the end of the month. The Pardee and Cady way of doing business.

Widow

Gerzso died in 2000 in Mexico City, leaving Gene Cady a widow for ten years. Like her mother, she lived out her life as comfortable as was possible. Along with Gunther, her ashes were placed in a crypt at the new Anglican Christ Church, Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico City.