ALVARADO LANG, Carlos (La Piedad de Cabadas, Michoacán, 1905 - Città del Messico, 1961)30 Estampas Populares

Copy No. 157

Carlos Alvarado Lang born in La Piedad Cabadas, Michoacán, in January 14, 1905. Mexican printmaker. His skill as a printmaker became apparent at an early age when he was employed as an assistant metal-engraver by Francisco Díaz de León at the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City. In 1929 he succeeded his teacher Emilio Valadés as professor of printmaking and subsequently became Director of the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas and of the Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura La Esmeralda, both in Mexico City. He was influential both as a teacher and for his virtuoso handling of traditional printmaking techniques, including line-engraving, drypoint, aquatint, mezzotint, wood-engraving and linocut. His prints, mainly of Mexican landscapes, combine technical skill with affective expressiveness. He experimented constantly with methods of improving procedures, especially with mezzotint, with the modification of printing presses and with the introduction of new acids. Alvarado Lang also did much to popularize 19th-century Mexican prints as a collector and writer. He died in Mexico City in September 3, 1961.

"To seek a literary justification for a monograph on folk art would be, for any judicious and reasonable person, truly absurd. The evidence of the work carried out by several generations fully justifies this edition and, if there is anything new in it, it is nothing more than the display of each of these prints made using engraving tools carved on copper or wood plates. For this reason, we have contented ourselves with creating a collection of the most varied relief and engraved prints from the 18th and 19th centuries." (from the prologue).