The Blanco Art Collection

Media: Linoleum Cuts
Themes:Mexicanidad

Francisco Mora

was born May 7, 1922 in Uruapan, Michoacán. He lived in Cuernavaca, Morelos.

From 1936 to 1939, he studied agriculture at La Huerta Agriculture Community College, in Morelia, Michoacán. In 1939 he painted a portrait of the Governor of the State, which enabled him to obtain a scholarship to study art in Morelia’s Art School. Between 1941 and 1944 he studied at The Esmeralda Academy, in Mexico City, while making a living painting houses and held other odd jobs that required his painting talents.

He joined Taller de Grafica Popular in 1941. During 1946 he sketched miners from Pachuca, Hidalgo for the Association of American Artists. That same year he married Elizabeth Catlett.

From 1949 on he was a professor of art in the daytime, and of continuous adult education in the evenings. He made a great number of engravings for the Journal of the Teachers Association, and magazine “El Maestro Mexicano” (The Mexican Professor). He also made a series linoleum engraving about “Los hombres de la Reforma” (The Reformist Men). In 1950 he painted a mural for the building of the daily “Sol de Toluca”.

He was Mexico’s representative to the 1960 Pedagogy World Congress, in Conakry, Guinea and traveled extensible in East and West Europe. In 1964 he had a solo Abstract Art Exhibit in National Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City.

In 1965 he resigned the TGP.

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.

Media: Lithographs
Themes: Mexicanidad

Elena Huerta

was born in Saltillo, Coahuila in 1908.

In 1921 she initiaded her studies in the Academy of Saltillo under Ruben Herrera. Between 1929 to 33 she studied at San Carlos Academy, under Carlos Merida. That same year she particpated in the chidren’s theater “Guiñol”.

From 1934 to 1937 was a member and founder of LEAR, and theater director for the League.

In 1939 she was a guest member to the TGP. She lived in the USSR from 1941 to 1946. In 1948 joined the TGP as a full member.

She was Director of the Guadalupe Posada, and Jose Clemente Orozco galleries. She painted her first mural in 1951 in Saltillo, Coahuila.

She traveled to China in 1957 and to Cuba in 1962.She partcipated in great number of exhibits in Mexico and around the world.

Media: Lithographs
Themes: Mexicanidad

Maria Luisa Martín

was a refugee from Spain who emigrated to Mexico in 1939. In 1944 she enrolled in La Esmeralda Academy.

She had her first solo exhibition in 1950. She assisted Diego Rivera in the painting of the murals at Ciudad Universitaria (campus of the Mexican National Autonomus University), and at the Insurgentes Theater.

From 1950 to 1953 she was a guest artist at the Taller de Gráfica Popular . From 1955 to 1965 she was a full member of TGP.

She traveled to Eastern Europe and China. She taught Art-Drawing- at the School of Arquitecture at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico.