Index of Contemporary Mexican Painting, 1935 First Edition

Agustín Velázquez Chávez

First Edition

Velázquez Chávez, Agustín. Índice de la Pintura Mexicana Contemporánea / Index of Contemporary Mexican Painting. Mexico: Ediciones Arte Mexicano, 1935. First edition. Quarto (11 x 8 in.). 225 pages. Parallel text in Spanish and English. Illustrated with tipped-in color and monochrome lithographs reproducing works by leading Mexican painters of the early 20th century, printed on heavy cream stock. Original printed wrappers with woodcut vignette, edges untrimmed. A landmark early survey of modern Mexican painting, issued during the post-revolutionary renaissance in which visual arts were central to constructing a national cultural identity. Compiled and written by art historian Agustín Velázquez Chávez, the work is notable as one of the first bilingual scholarly overviews of contemporary Mexican painters intended for both domestic and international audiences. Profiles include critical commentary, biographical sketches, and bibliographic citations, paired with fine lithographic reproductions.

Among the featured artists is Julio Castellanos, represented by Cirugía (Surgery, 1935), a lithograph depicting a hooded woman gently opening the eyelid of a seated figure—an allegorical rendering of care and revelation. Velázquez Chávez highlights Castellanos’s “personal charm” and “directness of outlook,” and recounts his role in the Panamerican Art Exhibition in Baltimore (1931). Roberto Montenegro is illustrated with Perfiles Mayas (Maya Profiles, 1935), showing stylized heads in profile against a temple backdrop. Critic Hermilo Abreu Gómez is quoted as saying Montenegro’s art “is attempting constantly to transform his means of expression… improving within the possibilities of a well-poised artistic consciousness.”The volume also includes Carlos Orozco Romero, with a Portrait (1935) characterized by simplified form and cool tonal control, and José Guadalupe Posada, the celebrated printmaker whose satirical calaveras and engravings were embraced by muralists such as Diego Rivera. Velázquez Chávez places Posada at the origin of a distinctly Mexican pictorial identity, describing him as “a man of the people… possessing, from first to last, a knowledge of the social and political conflicts of his day.”

Published just as Mexico’s muralist movement reached global prominence through figures like Diego Rivera, Orozco, Posada, and Siqueiros, this index captured the breadth of contemporary work beyond the monumental frescoes, documenting artists engaged with portraiture, easel painting, and printmaking. As the first title in the projected “Mexican Art Editions” series, it set a template for scholarly documentation of Mexican visual culture. Moderate toning and scattered foxing to wrappers, minor chipping at spine ends, text block clean and well-preserved; very good.

Item #22540

Price: $285.00