This painter, engraver, muralist and sculptor was born in Cadereyta in the state of Nuevo León. In 1922 he joined the Open Air School of Painting directed by Alfredo Ramos Martínez, whose original ideas enhanced his education. In contrast to other artists, his style followed an academic line that he also applied to mural painting, sculpture and engraving, among other discplines. For ten years (1924-1934) he traveled around Europe and the United States. He exhibited for the first time in the Exposition Park Museum in Los Angeles, California, and took part in several collective exhibitions in New York. He returned to Mexico in 1934, and in 1945 he began to work in drypoint with Carlos Alvarado Lang. In 1986, the exhibition in homage to Federico Cantú. Ciclos y reencuentros was held in the Palace of Fine Arts. That same year he went to the United States for the last time to give classes in the University of California. The historical and religious content of his work was developed through a drawing technique of excellent quality. For ten years after 1951 he devoted himself mainly to painting murals in private homes. In 1960 he began producing reliefs and emblematic sculpture of the Mexican Institute of Social Security. He created his last monument, a memorial to Alfonso Reyes, in 1988. Federico Cantú died in Mexico City in 1989.
