Leticia Tarrago (b. 1940) Mexican, Limited Edition Signed Color Etching. Title: "Grandmother Image III." Shows an older woman looming imperiously over a young girl with a bird on her head in the forefront. Signed bottom right in pencil. Numbered 190/300 bottom left in pencil. Informative label attached to back with title and attribution. 

Overall Size: 22 1/4 x 17 1/4 in. 

Sight Size: 14 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. 

#4659  

Leticia Tarrago was born in Veracruz, Mexico in 1940. She began studying art at “La Esmerelda,” the National School of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving in Mexico City in the 1950s, then continued her studies at the Academy of Plastic Arts and the Advanced Graphic Art Studio of Guillermo Silva in the 1960s. Under his recommendation she traveled to Warsaw, Poland in 1966 to study graphic art alongside students at the Academy of Fine Arts, where she solidified her visual style, creating colorful and expressive works that often feature young girls in whimsical, surreal settings. Combining European aesthetics with the concept of the “alebrije” (meaning fantasy or imaginary) that was popularized by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, her works achieved international recognition after her inclusion in an exhibition at the University of  Puerto Rico, the Salon de la Plastica Mexicana in Mexico City, and the Salon Debuitow in Warsaw, all within one year. In 1967 she won the National Engraving Prize of Mexico, and had her first solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv in 1968. Tarrago remains active into her 80s, working out of her home studio in Coatepec, Mexico, and her pieces can be found in museums, galleries, and private collections all over the world.