El rebozo blanco (The White Shawl)

Anguiano, a second-generation Muralist, followed the modernist aesthetic principles of the “the three great ones”—Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. An important figure in Mexican graphic art, Anguiano was among the founders of the People’s Graphic Workshop, established in 1937, which spread the political ideals of young artists in the post-revolutionary period. Anguiano is admired for his strengths as a draftsman and portraitist, skills seen in The White Shawl. The figure has been rendered with great realism. The pattern of thick, crosshatched lines that forms the shawl’s drapes creates a visual contrast with the soft lines and shading that define the features of the woman's face. Indigenous women are a constant theme in Anguiano’s work, which often represented and celebrated Mayan culture.

Text credit: Produced in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and Patricia Ortega-Miranda