***image1***Picture books for adults.
LATIN AMERICAN POSTERS: PUBLIC AESTHETICS AND MASS POLITICS
Edited by Russ Davidson
Museum of New Mexico Press ($34.95)
This lavishly illustrated and highly provocative collection traces 40 years of Latin American social and political history through posters. Essays by David Craven, Teresa Eckmann, Tere Romo and Ilan Stevens flesh out startlingly designed poster art. The colors are rendered richly on the printed page, as befits the bold lines and tones of the artwork.
!El Che Vive!
MEXICAN MODERN: MASTERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY
By Luis-Martin Lozano and David Craven
Museum of New Mexico Press ($29.95)
Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros have their innovative works lovingly showcased in high-quality reproductions in this book. Also included are lesser-known artists and avant-garde photographers. Lozano, director of Museo de Arte Moderno de Mexico, contributes a concise overview of the Mexican modernist renaissance and Craven, professor of art and art history at the University of New Mexico, offers a survey of the cultural diversity in Mexico that contributed to modernism's vitality there.
PASSIONS IN PRINT: PRIVATE INDUSTRY PRESS ARTISTRY IN NEW MEXICO, 1834-PRESENT
By Pamela S Smith and Richard Polese
Museum of New Mexico Press ($45)
Letterpress and private press innovation is yet another unique facet of New Mexico's legacy in the visual arts. Smith and Polese offer a comprehensive biographical and historical summary of private press activity, highlighted by dozens of illustrations of rare and original letterpress and limited edition book covers and designs. Private press efforts in the 19th century focused on mission school readers, including bilingual English/Laguna grammar books (Is it an ox?
Immeta iske weyes?
). The book traces the styles and fortunes of 29 private presses in all.
