mexic-artemuseum

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La Huella Magistral Exhibition Includes A Tribute to El Maestro Ernesto de Soto, the First Mexican American Master Printer in the United States

La Huella Magistral is the current exhibition of the Consejo Gráfico’s impressive artist portfolio that pays tribute to master printmakers. For this exhibition, Mexic-Arte Museumadded artworks from the Permanent Collection that recognize additional master printers. It is fitting to highlight Ernesto de Soto, the first Mexican American Master Printer as well as to recognize his 2005 contribution of over twenty large lithographs to Mexic-Arte Museum from the de Soto Workshop. These works were featured in an exhibition in September 2005 with Maestro de Soto attending. Later in 2006, the collection traveled to the Ben Bailey Art Gallery at Texas A&M University-Kingsville with the assistance of Professors Santa Barraza and Darin Forehand. In 2010, the collection was featured at The Museum of Printing History in Houston. At The Museum of Printing History, de Soto created a black and white lithograph, The Critic, an edition of 60, possibly the last lithograph authored by the master printer/artist.

For many Ernesto de Soto is not a familiar name. For Latino and Latina printmakers and art historians, he is known as the first Mexican American master printer and producer of an impressive series of artworks. Ernest Frank de Soto (October 26, 1923 – December 29, 2014) was a master printer, who specialized in American and Mexican prints during his career. De Soto was the first Master Printer of Mexican descent in the United States. He established and directed his own printing workshop, the de Soto Workshop, for over 27 years. De Soto was also the first American printmaker to establish an international relationship with Mexican artists and had a lasting impact on printing in the United States. Ernest F. de Soto was born in Tucson, Arizona.  An eighth-generation Tucsonan, de Soto left home after high school to study at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles when he was seventeen. While in Los Angeles, de Soto discovered the art of lithography under the master printer, Lynton R. Kistler. He was drafted into the Army Engineers, his background in art landed him work as a camouflage technician. After serving in the South Pacific, de Soto returned to Los Angeles briefly and then used money from the G.I. Bill to fund his studies in Guadalajara, Mexico at the Escuela de Bellas Artes. De Soto also attended the Escuela de Belles Artes in San Miguel de Allende from 1948 to 1949 where he learned fresco painting. While a student in Mexico, de Soto also was an apprentice under David Alfaro Siqueiros, a founder of the Mexican Muralism movement. His education also includes work at a number of other institutions, among them the University of Illinois, Urbana, where he earned a B.F.A. degree in 1961 and the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles. In 1965, he received a grant from the Ford Foundation to work, learn and experiment at Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles for two full years. After two years of apprenticeship, he was awarded the title of Master Printer. De Soto states, “A Master Printer is one who has learned every possible way to make a lithograph: how to tackle a problem and solve it. A printmaker should be able to prepare the work in such a way that long editions, sometimes up to 200 can be printed. This requires special skill, especially in lithography, because the higher the number of impressions, the greater the effort and knowledge needed to prepare for a long print run. An artist can print his own work, but a printer-artist as I call him, is, first of all, a printer. He is more skillful than an artist-printer in terms of technical knowledge. The Master Printer also must be inventive in helping the artist to achieve any special effects he wishes, and above all, a Master Printer cannot make mistakes.” De Soto was a Master Printer with virtuoso craftsmanship who worked hand in hand with artists to create hundreds and hundreds of images over fifty years.   In 1967, shortly after leaving Tamarind, de Soto became co-founder and Master Printer of Collectors Press Lithography Workshop in San Francisco. In 1972 he became partners of Editions Press with Jose Luis Cuevas. He remained with Collectors Press until the founding of his own shop in 1975, the Ernest F. de Soto Workshop, located in San Francisco. The de Soto Workshop “is known for specializing in contemporary Latin American and American lithographs." Contributions to the Art of Printmaking and Achievements Ernest F. de Soto made significant contributions to the art and craft of printmaking.  He played a major role in nurturing and creating long-lasting international relations with artists in other countries. In particular, de Soto created and forged an almost symbiotic reputation with many Mexican artists. De Soto’s interest in Latin America, bilingual ability, and desire to travel, landed him opportunities to create important relationships. Beginning in the late 1960’s de Soto, operated a series of well-known lithography workshops that became very popular with an emerging generation of now world-famous Mexican artists. Based in San Francisco from 1967 to 1993, Collector’s Press Lithography Workshop, Editions Press, and the de Soto Workshop worked with the finest of Mexico’s artists, Jose Luis Cuevas, Alejandro Colunga, Gunther Gerzo, Alfredo Castaneda, Francisco Toledo, Francisco Zuniga and Leonora Carrington, on what has become an important post-war lithography collection. The de Soto Workshop is known for specializing in contemporary Latin American and American lithographs, fine prints, and etching by some of the best-known Latin American and American artists of our time. The de Soto Workshop Collection With over 50 years of experience collaborating with important artists as David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo among others, the Tucson-based Master Lithographer Ernest F. de Soto created a significant collection and national treasure. de Soto merits national recognition for his contributions to the artistic tradition and craftsmanship of printmaking.  As an artist he has contributed to teaching, advocacy, organizing and preserving the once-endangered art of lithography and made a major impact on the artistic tradition of printmaking.   Ernest de Soto donated and made accessible this collection to several museums in the United States that will preserve these works. These include the Mexic-Arte Museum, The Mexican Museum, the University Museum of Arizona, Boston Museum, Cleveland Museum Print Club, among others. La Huella Magistral features two works from the de Soto collection printed at his studio and two rare prints created by the Master printer/artist. We invite you to come by and visit the exhibition. Sylvia Orozco Executive Director

Image: Rupert García, The Geometry of Manet and the Sacred Heart II, lithograph, 1990. Gift of Ernesto De Soto.

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New Handmade and Fair Trade Textiles, Felt Animals and More at Museum Store

The Mexic-Arte Museum Store is excited to now feature products from Mayan Hands, a fair-trade nonprofit company that aims to support and empower female artisans from the Guatemalan highlands. Mayan Hands has partnered with over 200 female artisans from 13 rural communities, offering fair compensation for their work and providing access to training and development classes and healthcare. The products, which include handmade felted wool animals, small bags and woven pouches, include tags that are signed by the artisans who produced them. Stop by the Museum store and support these female artisans.

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Intern Spotlight

Photography Intern Joins Mexic-Arte Museum

Katie Bentley is a Senior at St.Edward’s University where she is currently completing her degree in Photo Communications. Katie has recently joined the Mexic-Arte Museum team as a photography intern where she hopes to further her digital photography skills through archiving artwork, creating content for social media platforms, and photographing events. She hopes to strengthen both her artistry and cultural understanding during her time at Mexic-Arte Museum.

Intern Joins Museum Through Work-Study Partnership

Camila Rojas joined Mexic-Arte Museum as part of the Museum’s work-study partnership with St. Edwards University. Camila is an Environmental Science and Policy major at St. Edward’s University and was born and raised in Mexico City. She is excited to work at Mexic-Arte Museum as the education intern and learn about how non-profits are managed and the role that education plays in the arts.

Oberlin Student Completes Winter Term Internship

Education Intern Mikaela de Lemos recently completed her internship during her school’s winter term. Mikaela is a sophomore at Oberlin College in the Cleveland, Ohio area. She assisted the Education and Curatorial departments with preparations for the Mix ‘n’ Mash exhibition and leaves the Museum with a more intimate knowledge of the inner workings and processes of a non-profit as well as a deeper understanding of contemporary Latinx culture. The Museum bids her farewell and wishes her luck.

Museum Welcomes New Exhibitions and Collections Intern

Hyunyoung Park is from Seoul, South Korea and is studying English Language and Literature and Business Administration at Sungshin University. Hyungyoung is part of the Art Alliance Abroad program Korea WEST and will intern in the Exhibitions and Collections Department for six months.  She is interested in advancing her English language skills while learning about art and museums.

Museum Welcomes New Education Intern

Elainy Lopez is a second year Art Education graduate student at UT Austin. She is working towards getting her teacher’s certification and hopes to work as an elementary art teacher. As an Education Intern, she looks forward to learning more about art education within the museum space and how curriculum is developed from exhibitions.

Mexic-Arte Museum Bids Farewell to Graphic Design Intern

The Museum would like to wish Graphic Design Intern Mitchell Hawley the best of luck as he embarks on his next journey.

Mitchell Hawley

is an emerging self-taught illustrator and visual artist based out of Austin, Texas. Inspired greatly by nature, children’s aesthetics, folk-art, and fantasy, he explores these themes in his illustration identity called Snail Club.

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Support Mexic-Arte Museum through Amplify Austin Day

Get ready for Amplify Austin Day on February 28th, Austin’s annual day of giving! Your support and contributions will help us meet our Amplify Austin Day goal of $10,000, which will fund our Viva la Vida Artist-In-Residence Education (AIRE) program this year. AIRE artists will create a large-scale artwork, which will travel through the streets of downtown Austin during our Day of the Dead parade in October, and lead free public art-making workshops! Schedule your donation today, or make a donation between February 28th at 6 pm and March 1st at 6 pm. Want to raise money on behalf of Mexic-Arte Museum for Amplify Austin day? Contact Conner Moncrief, our Development Associate at connerm@mexic-artemuseum.org or 512-200-7276 to talk about involving yourself in our Peer to Peer fundraising program for Amplify Austin! With your help, we can make this our best Amplify Austin day ever! Check out our AIRE resident from 2018, KUNIKLO, an artist collective from Puerto Rico. They created a transforming alebrije float for the parade and ran workshops teaching children how to create art from recycled materials. Schedule your donation today to help provide Austin with unique art and learning opportunities!

Image: Children pose with the alebrije float created by 2018 Viva la Vida Artists in Residency Kuniklo and Friends.

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Team Building Exercises at Mexic-Arte Museum!

The Education Department in partnership with Austin Detours hosted a group of coworkers from Deloitte’s Chicago offices. They came in six different groups and were challenged to work together to create a cohesive work on two boards exemplifying the keyword: Human Connection. The groups were only given fifteen minutes to complete the task so there was a lot of teamwork involved in the final process.

Image:  One of the two winning groups of Deloitte coworkers posing with their work.

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Akins High School Recognizes Museum as Outstanding Supporter

On January 17th Akins High School invited Mexic-Arte Museum to their Fine Arts Community Partners Celebration as VIP guests to their opening of the spectacular Akins Journey Theater production of “Chicago”. Hosted by the Akins Fine Arts Department & the Arts and Humanities Academy, Mexic-Arte Museum was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation “For being an Outstanding Supporter of Akins High School Arts and for all you do for our students!” Mexic-Arte Museum and Akins High School have had a long time ongoing relationship through the Museum's Screen It! program. The screen printing outreach program has been not only been hosted by Akins during their summer camps but during their fall and spring semesters.

Image:  Education Associate Jose Martinez poses with the Certificate of Appreciation from Akins High School.

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Mexic-Arte Museum to Host Family Day

Dates: Sunday, February 10th Time: 12 – 5pm Admission: Free

On Sunday, February 10th, Mexic-Arte Museum will hold a special Family Day workshop, in conjunction with regularly scheduled Sunday tours. The theme will be printmaking, coinciding with the new exhibition, La Huella: Homage to Master Printmakers. Guests will learn about different types of prints and get to make their own monoprint! Join Mexic-Arte Musem's Education Associates Paulina Dosal-Terminel and Jose Martinez anytime between 12-5pm for a day of free family fun and art making. This is also the last day to see the "Mix N Mash" community exhibition. Come make some art and maybe take some home as well!

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Save the Date for the 2018 Taste of Mexico Festival

Wednesday, May 1st marks the return of Mexic-Arte Museum's Taste of Mexico. Held at Brazos Hall, the culinary arts festival will be exploring the diversity and richness of Mexican cuisine by sampling dishes and beverages from 50 of Austin's most exciting restaurants and beverage purveyors. This year's festival will spotlight the influence of cuisine from the Puebla, Mexico region. Save the date and stay tuned for early bird tickets!

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Jill Ramirez Printmaking Discussion

Dates: Saturday, February, 16th Time: 1 – 2pm Admission: $7 or Free for Museum Members

Join Mexic-Arte Museum for the second in a series of discussions delving into the current exhibition, La Huella Magistral: Homage to Master Printmakers. Jill Ramirez, Executive Director of the Serie Project, will touch on a range of issues including the printmaking practice and history, diversity in the arts, and her late husband Sam Coronado's legacy. The Serie Project is an organization dedicated to promoting the fine art of serigraphy – a technique that produces original, hand-pulled prints. Over the course of the last 20 years, the organization has hosted an Artist in Residence program that allowed for participants to learn the technique of serigraphy and create a limited edition print under the guidance of a Master Printer. The Serie Project has encouraged multi-racial participation with the hope of increasing the presence of minorities in the art world. Attend the talk...

Image: Detail of Paul del Bosque's Liberty in Imagination, screen print, 2017.

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Mix 'n' Mash Artist Meetup and Paint Party

In anticipation of this year's Mix 'n' Mash exhibition, Mexic-Arte Museum hosted a series of artist workshops on Thursday, January 10th and Thursday, January 17th. Guest Artist Yocelyn Riojas and representatives from Latinx Creatives Meetup facilitated the open workshops in which guests were invited to create a work of art inspired by the theme of migration. Works completed were donated to the Museum and incorporated into Mix 'n' Mash: Migration. They are currently on view and available for purchase until February 10, 2019.

Image:  Party attendees work on their Mix 'n' Mash boards for the 2019 exhibition.

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Sandra Fernández Leads Artist Talk

On Saturday, January 26th Sandra Fernández held an artist talk at Mexic-Arte Museum. Fernández is the Executive Director of the Consejo Gráfico National tallers/workshops as well as an artist in La Huella Magistral: Homage to Master Printmakers. Visitors learned about printmaking's rich history, the inspiration behind her work, and Consejo Gráfico, the independent group of printmaking workshops formed to advance the legacy and viability of Latinx printmaking in the United States. Fernández provided insights into the works of the 19 printmakers making up Consejo Gráfico's third Portfolio Exchange.

Image:  Sandra Fernández discusses works in Consejo Gráfico’s third Portfolio Exchange.

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Community Enjoys Opening Reception of La Huella Magistral and Mix 'n' Mash Exhibitions

On Friday, January 25th Mexic-Arte Museum held the opening reception of the exhibitions, La Huella Magistral: Homage to Master Printmakers and Mix 'n' Mash: Migration. The opening coincided with PrintAustin and welcomed close to five hundred people to the Museum. Visitors enjoyed antojitos, live music from DJ Mezkla, specialty cocktails from Dulce Vida Tequila, and art activities with Ampersand Art Supply. Thank you to our sponsors for your generous support!

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Print by Acclaimed Mexican Artist On View During Current Exhibition

Arturo García Bustos is recognized as one of Mexico’s most renowned artists and master printmakers. Born in 1926 in Mexico City, one of Bustos most significant of collaborations proved to be between himself and Frida Kahlo. During his years with Kahlo, he became known as one of “Los Fridos,” four young artists famous for their devotion to Kahlo. Bustos continued to be part of the 20th-century Mexican avant-garde as a founder of the Artistas Jóvenes Revolucionarios — an artistic collective with the principal objective of painting and promoting protest art— and subsequently as a member of the artist-run collective Taller de la Grafica Popular (TGP, People’s Graphic Workshop). The provocative prints created during the TGP workshop, commenting on the social and political injustices around the world and particularly in Mexico, are the highlights of Bustos’ oeuvre. In 1983, Bustos generously donated several Taller de la Grafica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop) prints to the bourgeoning Mexic-Arte Museum Permanent Collection. Several of his works including Campesinos mixes are on view during the Museum's current exhibition, La Huella Magistral: Homage to Master Printmakers.  

Image:  Arturo García Bustos, Campesinos mixes, linocut, 1956-1957.

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John Patrick Cobb Discusses his Chapel Shrine Exhibition

January 25, 2019 – March 3, 2019 NORTH GALLERY

Chapel Shrine: Paintings by John Patrick Cobb spotlights works by the Austin based artist. On view until March 3, 2019, the exhibition features rendering of Biblical imagery. Cobb’s works are inspired by his travels throughout Europe and the religious paintings he encountered in chapels. He employs gold leaf and egg tempera, classic methods that date back to Byzantine iconographers, to create paintings of Biblical characters and scenes that resemble early Renaissance portraits. Cobb’s works, however, subvert Eurocentric Biblical iconography, including Mexican and Mexican American subjects in his particular renderings of holy imagery. Learn More...

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Purchase Art to Support Mexic-Arte Museum

January 25, 2019 – February 10, 2019 ANNEX GALLERY

Mix ‘n’ Mash: Migration is an annual group art exhibition featuring over 200 artists with every artwork on display for sale. Currently on view until February 10th, the works of art featured in the exhibition are on 12” by 12” Gessobords that were generously donated byAmpersand Art Supply of Austin, Texas. Proceeds from the sale of art will be used to provide funding to care for the Museum’s Permanent Collections and/or for exhibitions and educational programming. Mix ‘n’ Mash: Migration features a special component this year, with some participating artists creating new artworks exploring the theme of migration. Participating artists delve into a variety of issues including immigration, the Latin American diaspora, and assimilation in the current social-political climate. Artworks produced use a variety of media to highlight the varied perspectives informed by each artist’s experiences.

Image:  Gallery attendant assists visitor with their Mix 'n' Mash purchase. Photo by Katie Bentley.

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La Huella Magistral: Homage to Master Printmakers

January 25, 2019 – June 3, 2019 (Closed March 4 – April 4) SOUTH GALLERY

On Friday, January 25th, Mexic-Arte Museum opened its new exhibition La Huella Magistral: Homage to Master Printmakers. The exhibition spotlights prints in Consejo Gráfico’s third Portfolio Exchange. Founded in 2000, Consejo Gráfico is an independent group of printmaking workshops formed to advance the legacy and viability of Latinx printmaking in the United States. Make sure to visit the exhibition which will be on view until June 3, 2019. La Huella Magistral: Homage to Master Printmakers features works from 19 printmakers, each contributing an individual print to the limited edition portfolio. Each artist pays tribute to a master printmaker who mentored, taught, or inspired them and contributed artwork in their mentor’s preferred medium or recognizable style. Mexic-Arte Museum expands on the themes explored in the portfolio by incorporating prints from the Museum’s Permanent Collection. Featured Printmakers: René H. Arceo, Eliezer Berrios, Kay Brown Pepe Coronado, Marcos Dimas, Paul del Bosque, Sandra C. Fernández, Juan R. Fuentes, Luanda Lozano, Poli Marichal, Jaime Montiel, Malaquias Montoya, Betty Perez Cole, Ramiro Rodríguez, Marianne Sadowski, Joseph Segura, Francesco Siqueiros, Ricardo Xavier Serment, and Nitza Tufiño.

Image: Detail of René H. Arceo's Alegoría Goyesca,linocut, 2017. 

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New Posada-Design Sweatshirts in the Museum Store

Mexic-Arte Museum is now selling Posada-design sweatshirts in addition to short and long-sleeve tees! The sweatshirts, which are dark gray with black sleeves, are printed with three different designs by iconic Mexican printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada. Lined on the inside with soft fleece, the sweatshirts are a great way to keep cozy and warm in the cooler weather.