Silver Masters of Mexico explores handmade jewelry and tablewares in mid 20th C. Mexico.  The author focuses on the designer Hector Aguilar and his workshop, Taller Borda.  Aguilar was William Spratling's workshop manager when Spratling initiated the modern silver industry in Taxco in the 1930s.  In 1939, Aguilar set out on his own.  His studio became a center of innovation and creativity, employing hundreds of artisans.

Paired with the book in the photo to the right are hammered sterling silver and brass sacred heard/cross earrings by Carlos Gutierrez, a contemporary jewelry master, originally from Oaxaca and a long-time resident of Los Angeles.  Gutierrez began learning jewelry at the age of 6 from his parents, both silversmiths. By the time he was 15, he was making a living at his art.  He now creates his own line of Oaxacan style jewelry and shows it throughout the United States.

Tocuaro: A Mexican Village is a children's book discussing the geography, history and environment of this village in Michoacan through the eyes of three generations of the Horta family. 

Pictured here with the book is a mask by Gustavo Horta, who began learning carving techniques from his father when he was 8.  His favorite wood is copalillo, but he also uses pine and avocado.  Gustavo and his wife and four children live with his parents, and they all assist in some way in the family carving tradition.

Geniuses of Art: Frida Kahlo is filled with color plates of Kahlos' iconic paintings.  She was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo in 1907 on the outskirts of Mexico City and died there in 1954.   An internationally known artist, Kahlo was a woman of extremes.  During her life, her physical and psychological hardships became the source material for her expressive surrealist/magic realist images, many of them self portraits.  Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous  tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.

The book is shown here with two figures of Kahlo by members of the famous Aguilar family of ceramist from Oaxaca.  They are known for their figures depicting the life and traditions of Oaxaca, as well as Mexican icons such as Kahlo and the Virgin of Guadalupe.

VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE

Guadalupe: Our Lady of New Mexico delves into this ever-present symbol, at once peaceful, powerful, and persuasive. The New World Virgin Mary, Guadalupe, appeared five hundred years ago near Mexico City to Indian peasant Juan Diego.  First introduced into the northern Rio Grande Valley with the Spanish reconquest in 1692, Guadalupe has played an important role in the daily lives of New Mexicans ever since.

Mexico City master paper mache artist Joel Garcia created the Guadalupe pictured here.  Garcia studied under Linares family scion Pedro, whose innovations elevated papier-mache from a street craft to an internationally valued art form.  Garcia has developed his own distinctive style and is known for his alebrijes and Day of the Dead figures.