Arturo Souto’s (Pontevedra, 1902 – Mexico City, 1964) childhood was spent in cities throughout Spain due to his father’s profession as a jurist, which caused the family to move frequently. In 1920 he moved to Madrid and enrolled at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando [Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando]. At the academy he came into contact with the group formed by Hipólito Hidalgo de Caviedes, Salvador Dalí and Carlos Sáenz de Tejada. His work took two general directions: on one hand, he made canvases that echoed genres ranging from Fauvism to Expressionism or from Magical Realism to Cubism; on the other, he created social protest prints, set in the streets of large urban areas.

In 1934, he received a grant to study in Rome, from where he frequently traveled to Paris. During the Spanish Civil War, he worked as an illustrator and poster designer for the Alianza de Intelectuales Antifascistas para la Defensa de la Cultura [Alliance of Antifascist Intellectuals for the Defense of Culture]. At that time he became associated with the movement Os Novos [The New Ones], a group of revolutionary Galician artists led by Rafael Dieste. After the war he spent time in exile in France, Cuba and the United States, and in 1942 he settled in Mexico. In the 1950s his work became more poised, shedding the nervous brush strokes of earlier periods. He focused on women, nudes and Galician folklore until his death in 1964.