Arturo García Bustos
1958, 8.3 x 8.5″, linoleum
From The Printing Museum website: Arturo García Bustos is one of México’s renowned artists and master printmakers. Born in 1926 in Mexico City, Bustos quickly developed his artistic talents entering into the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas at the early age of 15. Later in 1942, Bustos would enter into his most significant pedagogical relationship at the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura de La Esmeralda with professors Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Augustín Lazo, and Alfredo Zalce. The most significant of these collaborations proved to be between Bustos 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.