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