Elizabeth Catlett

Happy Birthday Elizabeth Catlett

Born today, April 15, 1915, Elizabeth Catlett was an African American sculptor and graphic artist. She was born in Washington D.C.; both her parents children of freed slaves. She went to Howard University there, studying painting. Later she attended University of Iowa to study with Grant Wood (landscape painting) and Henry Stinson (sculpture). Wood advised her to focus her art on what was important to her. Indeed, her art promoted her political and certainly humanitarian views on the plight of  the African American and Mexican woman. In the '40s she moved to Mexico to study on a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship. Catlett was later barred from returning to the US, labeled an "undesirable alien".

Since she originally intended to become an art teacher, she did teach at several institutions both in the US and in Mexico. While in Mexico Catlett worked with the Taller de Grafica Popular for 20 years,  using posters and publications to forward her message in support of women and children, social issues, leftist political views, etc. She had over 50 exhibitions of her work throughout the course of her lifetime, in Mexico and abroad. Her work was recognized with several awards. Her art, especially her sculpture became sought after and some pieces sold for several thousand dollars.  Eventually she was allowed back into the US and divided her time between Battery Park  City, NY, and Mexico.

Although the Sharecropper (below) was cut in 1952, it was not printed until 1970. It is one of her most recognized linoleum cuts.

Antonio Pujol

Happy Birthday Anthony Pujol!

Born on April 13, 1913, Antonio Pujol's parents were farmers. He began studying art in 1929 when he moved to Mexico City, at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. He became an engraver, painter and muralist. He collaborated with other muralists such as Pablo O'Higgins, Marion and Grace Greenwood. 

Following his service during the Spanish Civil War, he relocated to Montevideo for a time and he worked under the alias of Abel Beltran Bastar. He married Ada Canabe Nalerio  and they returned to Mexico in 1960. He died in Mexico City in 1995. The lithograph below is simply titled Picture of a Little Girl...

Hermenegildo Bustos

Happy Birthday Hermengildo Bustos!

April 13, 1832 was this painter of Mestizo heritage's birthday. Hermenegildo Bustos was born into a Catholic family in the tiny village of Purisima del Rincon. His apprenticeship with portrait painter Juan Nepomuceno Herrera for six months was his only art training. He is primarily known for portraiture, painting sets for each notable family in the vicinity, but also worked on still life as well as religious works.

His work was not really recognized until after the Mexican Revolution and he often inscribed "Hermenegildo Bustos amateur painter" on the backs of his paintings. The self portrait shown below features a coat that Bustos himself designed and made for the occasion. It reads: Hermenegildo Bustos, indio de este pueblo de Purísima del Rincón, nací el 13 de abril de 1832. (Hermenegildo Busto, an Indian from this town Purisima del Rincon, I was born April, 13, 1832.)

Jose Julio Gaona

Happy Birthday Jose Julio Gaona!

Painter Jose Julio Gaona was born on April 12, 1943, in Aguascalientes. As a teen he began his painting and engraving studies at Bellas Artes Aguascalientes, moving to Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas, in Mexico City three years later. Best known for his paintings of women and girls, Gaona uses vibrant colors and strong lines. Regarding the universe as magical, he paints with a gentle, free style. His work is described as non-aggressive, innocent. While his figures are proportional, they are stylized in geometric, rather flat, planes. His themes tend to be of everyday Mexican life.

Gaona has painted over 300 canvases. His work has been exhibited across Mexico and abroad. He currently lives in Mexico City.

Oscar Gonzales Loyo

Happy Birthday Oscar Gonzales Loyo!

Born today, April 11, 1959, in Mexico City, Oscar Gonzales Loyo takes after his father, Oscar Gonzales Guerrero, as a comic book artist. He published his first comic art page at age 14, in Las Aventuras de Capulina. Loyo refers to Walt Disney, Osama Tezuka (Japanese Manga artist) and Will Eisner (American comic artist) as important influences on his work.

He is founder and primary partner of  Kaboom! Estudio.  Over the years he has worked for several titles such as The Simpsons, The Flintstones, Looney Tunes, and Tiny Toons, among others. Loyo has earned awards and recognitions for his art.

Angel Santos Juarez

Happy Birthday Angel Santos Juarez!

Angel Santos Juarez is a Mexican potter born today, April 10, 1964, in Zacateca. Although his family moved to Tonala, Jalisco, a well known ceramics town, he did not come from a family of potters. Instead, after showing an interest at an early age, Juarez was apprenticed to Manuel Silva at age 7. His specialty became miniatures and his decorative painting, but he also makes larger works. While other potters rely on designs handed down and perfected through the years, he is adept at taking motifs and themes and making them his own. He went on to obtain degrees from University of Guadalajara in graphic design and sculpture. He has his own studio where his wife Alicia and two children assist him.

Santos Juarez works in the traditional Brunido (burnished) method. He mixes his clay with his bare feet on the ground, presses the clay into basic shape molds, after drying to a leatherhard state he burnishes the piece and it is dipped into slip (a watered down colored clay solution) and fired. After the first firing, the pieces are then decorated, burnished again and fired once more. A selection of his work is shown here...

Amador Lugo Guadarrama

Happy Birthday Amador Lugo Guadarrama!

The Mexican landscape painter, engraver and promoter was born on April 12, 1921 (yes I know today is the tenth!), in the rural village of Santa Rosa. He began painting landscapes as a young boy and studied at Escuela de Aire Libre de Pintura, in nearby Taxco,becoming the first student to become a professional artist from this school.The school was run by Japanese artist Tamaji Kitagawa and his influence can be seen in Guadarrama's paintings. One of the aims of the school was to provide art for the masses, encouraging students to sever from traditional academics.

Amador Guadarrama relocated to Mexico City where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. In addition to painting he also learned engraving, becoming a master. He was a writer, a promoter and  a founder of several art organizations. When he entered the art scene in Mexico City in the '40's it was dominated by the Mexican muralist movement. Although he did relate to the aesthetics and style of the group, he did not support their politics. He believed, instead that art was meant to bring forward and express ideas and deep seated feelings and present this to the public.

Below I have chosen a Surrealist landscape to include.