1960s Mid Century Abstract Expressionist Lithographs by Carlos Merida - Set of 10

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Carlos Merida Mid-Century MCM Lithograph 10 Piece Set. These wonderful prints are a true depiction of Merida works. They are … Read more Carlos Merida Mid-Century MCM Lithograph 10 Piece Set. These wonderful prints are a true depiction of Merida works. They are beautiful & full of color. They are mounted on board.
A RARE find to have all 10 of these together. These are his works from the 1940's.

Carlos Mérida is best known for his canvas and mural works, most of which was done in Mexico. However, he also did engraving, set design and mosaic work.
He had three major epochs, a figurative period from 1907 to 1926, a surrealism phase from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s and from 1950 until his death, geometric forms characterized his work. His early work is marked by experimentation. He was in Europe when the Avant Garde was transitioning from Impressionism to Cubism and he was influenced by the works of Modigliani and Picasso. Salvador Novo wrote “The pre Hispanic world, in Carlos Mérida, attains a perfect synthesis, an ideal sublimation of numeric rhythm sprung from geometry. The debt owed by the abstract painting of our time to Carlos Mérida is thus as great as his work is perennially solid and relevant."
Guatemalan artist Carlos Mérida is best known for creating Modernist abstract art that integrated Latin American culture with 20th-century European painting. Born in 1891 in Guatemala City, Guatemala, Mérida was of Spanish and Kʼicheʼ Maya heritage, which would later become a significant influence in his work. He studied music as a child but, after experiencing hearing loss, began to study painting instead.

In 1910, at the age of 19, Mérida presented work in his first art exhibition. That same year, he moved to Paris, where he lived for four years and met and worked with Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, and Amedeo Modigliani, as well as several prominent Latin American artists residing in Europe at that time.
In 1919, Mérida returned to Latin America and lived in Mexico as the Mexican Revolution drew to an end. There, he worked with Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo.
In the decades that followed, Mérida expanded his practice to include graphic works, sketches, tapestries, and stage sets and costumes for dance performances. He died in 1984 in Mexico City at the age of 93.
Mérida’s extensive and varied body of work fused aspects of Surrealism, Muralism, Cubism, and European Modernism with elements of pre-Columbian Mayan culture. He was known for integrating figurative elements into his abstract art, such as colorful organic and geometric representations of clusters of people, and employed a variety of media, including watercolor, oil, gouache and pencil, and parchment and plastic. He was the recipient of several prestigious awards, namely the Order of the Quetzal (Guatemala’s highest order) and the Order of the Aztec Eagle (Mexico’s highest order given to foreigners). The collection of some of his works are on display at the Phoenix Art Museum. See less