The Blanco Art Collection

Media: Linoleum Cut meant as a Poster
Themes: The Social and Political Awareness

Jesús Álvarez Amaya

was born in Mexico City on November 19, 1925.

In 1942 he attended the Art School for Workers Number 1. He studied under Ramon Alva de la Canal. In 1948 he had his own personal exhibition. From 1952 on, he has painted several murals.

In 1956 he joined Taller de Grafica Popular. Since 1967 he is its General Coordinator. In 1965 he was a TGP delegate to the Peace Congress in Helsinki.

During the 1968 students’ demonstrations in Mexico City, Álvarez Amaya made a lithography of Che Guevara. It was very well received by the students, who used it as a poster in their protests. He also made a lithography of president Allende, at the time he died. It was later used as an homage to the Memory of Salvador Allende.

At present he lives in Mexico City.

Media: Linoleum Cut
Themes: The Social and Political Awareness

Alberto Beltrán

was born in Mexico City in March 22, 1923. where he lived.

In 1934 he became an apprentice, in his father’s taylor shop. He attended night the commercial graphics school at San Carlos Academy . Later, he took courses at La Academia de Gráfica Libre under the guidance of Carlos Alvarado Lang.

He joined Taller de Gráfica Popular in 1944. His productions of a great amount of flyers were published in workers unions’ publications, journals and booklets for the alphabetization campaigns and missions organized by the Institute of Indigenous People.

From 1948 on he took responsibilities in several positions of leading committees in the the TGP.
In 1953 he became a founding member of the Mexican Fine Arts’ Institute. In 1967 he also became a Founder Member of the Mexican Academy of Arts.

In 1956 he received the National Price from the National Institute for fine Arts (INBA), in Graphics, and two years later he won the first place in Graphics at the First Interamerican Biannual Contest in Mexico. In 1958 as President of TGP, he attended the Peace Congress in Stocolm Sweeden.

He has been editor at several liberal publications such as the “Ahi va el Golpe” (There Goes a Punch), el “Coyote Emplumado” (The feather Coyote). He has also been a member of the editoral council of the Mexican daily “El Dia”.

He also had been director of the art departament at the Universidad Veracruzana, in Jalapa, Veracruz. He has received many awards, and he has participated with his works in large number of Expositions.

He resigned the TGP in 1960.

Ángel Bracho

was born in February 14, 1911 in Mexico City.

He worked as a blue collar worker. and at the same time took night classes at the San Carlos Academy in 1928. from the next year up to 1933, he took art courses on drawing and painting at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

He was considered a founding member of the Taller de Grafica Popular. There he produced his first lithographies.

In the year of 1948 he also was founding member of the Society for the Enhancement of the Fine Arts. From 1952 to 53, he was its Director and later from 1961 to 63, he was its president.

He was awarded the Gold Medal in 1960 at the Biannual competition in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His production of murals and wood cuts and paintings was very substantial.

Media: Lithographs
Themes: Mexicanidad

Celia Calderón

was born in Mexico City in 1921. She died there in 1969.

Between 1942-1944 she studied at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas. In 1944 she received a scholarship for graduate work in La Escuela de Artes del Libro at UNAM, Mexico City.

From 1946 she became a teacher in Art Education. In 1947 she was a founding member of the Mexican Society of Printers. In 1950 she had her first individual exhibit.

She was granted a fellowship from the British Council for one year’s studies at the Slade Art School in London. In 1952 she traveled to France and Italy.

She joined the Taller de Grafica Popular in 1952. In 1953 and 1959 she was Director of Exhibits at the TGP.

In 1957 traveled to USSR and China. In Peking she presented an individual exhibit.

In 1963 she was elected President of the TGP. She resigned from the TGP IN 1965. She was also a member of the Salon de la Plastica Mexicana.

Media: Lithographs
Themes: Mexicanidad

Elizabeth Catlett Mora

was born in 1919 in Washington, D.C. She currently lives in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

In 1936, she graduated from Howard University in Washington with a BA in Art. In 1940 she obtained a Master’s Degree in Art from the University of Iowa. She also studied ceramic in the Art Institute of Chicago, lithography at the Art Students League in New York as well as sculpture under Ossip Zadkine and Grant Wood, also in New York.

She taught sculpture at Praire View College in Texas, at Williard University, in New Orleans, La. and at Hampton Institute in Virginia.

In 1939, in Iowa, she held her first individual Exhibit. She participated in the “American Negro Exbition” in Chicago.

Between 1945-1947 she was awarded a fellowishp from the Julius Rosewald Foundation. She taught with Charles White, in Louisiana, Virginia and Georgia.

In 1946 traveled to Mexico and joined the Taller de Grafica Popular and married Francisco Mora. She became Director of Fine Arts at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas.

In 1962 she traveled to Cuba.

She became the TGP’S General S ecretary in 1963. She resigned from the TGP in 1965.

She has received a great number of awards, honors, and homages in Mexico as well as in the United States.