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Alfredo Zalce

Also known as: Alfredo Zalce; primary name: Zalce, Alfredo
Details: individual; printmaker; Mexican; Male
Life dates: 1908-2003
Biography: Text from Dawn Adès and Alison McClean, 'Revolution on Paper, Mexican Prints 1910-1960', with the assistance of Laura Campbell, BMP, 2009 Alfredo Zalce was born in 1908 in the town of Pátzcuaro near Morelia in the state of Michoacán. His parents were both professional photographers and they intended their son to follow in their footsteps. By 1914, because of the Revolution, the family had moved to Mexico City where Zalce completed his education. When he finished school at the age of sixteen he enrolled at the Academy of San Carlos, where he studied from 1924 until 1928. One of his teachers here was Diego Rivera. In 1931 Zalce returned to the Academy to learn lithography from Carlos Mérida and Emilio Amero. Zalce made his first woodcuts in 1933, as a member of the LEAR, the pro-revolutionary group that he founded with Pablo O'Higgins and Leopoldo Méndez. In 1937 Zalce was one of the earliest artists to make prints at the TGP, the collective he helped to establish. His prints focused on political subjects and Mexico's indigenous heritage. A trip to the Yucatán Peninsula in 1944 with his wife, the painter Frances du Casse, consolidated his interest in Mayan culture. The result was 'Estampas de Yucatán', a series of eight lithographs depicting people and nature published by the TGP in 1946. Like several of his contemporaries, Zalce took part in the Cultural Missions organized by the government to disseminate revolutionary ideologies to rural communities. Between 1935 and 1941 he travelled throughout rural Mexico painting murals in public buildings, especially schools. In 1936 he also worked with Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O'Higgins and Fernando Gamboa on the mural 'Workers against the War and Fascism' on the stairwell at the Talleres Gráficos de la Nación in the centre of Mexico City. His most famous murals, however, are at the Palacio de Gobierno in Morelia (1954-5) and the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. In the early 1930s Zalce was Director of the open-air school at Taxco and Professor of Drawing for primary schools in Mexico City and its surrounding areas. His teaching career continued and in 1944 he became Professor of Painting at the University of Mexico. Later in life Zalce returned to his native state of Michoacán and established a Fine Arts Workshop in the town of Uruápan. He lived in Morelia from 1950 until his death in 2003 at the age of 95; his collection passed to the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alfredo Zalce de Morelia, established to house the bequest. Zalce was awarded the Premio Nacional de Arte in 2001.
Bibliography: Mexican Prints. From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. (Cm 5 14); Carlos Pellicer and Rafael Carrillo Azpeitia: Mural painting of the Mexican Revolution. 1992 (Z 6 24)

13 related objects

print; portfolio

Title: Los Obreros de Madera Mexican people |
Museum number: 2008,7069.1.11 |
Producer name: Print made by:Alfredo ZalcePublished by:Associated American Artists |
Production date: 1946

print; poster

Title: La URSS defiende las libertades del Mundo. !Ayudemosla! |
Museum number: 2008,7073.10 |
Producer name: Print made by:Alfredo ZalcePublished by:Taller de Gráfica Popular |
Production date: 1941

print

Title: México se transforma en una gran ciudad .... |
Museum number: 2008,7069.43 |
Producer name: BIOG130911 Print made by:Alfredo Zalce |
Production date: 1947

print

Title: Ghosts |
Museum number: 2008,7114.4 |
Producer name: BIOG130911 Print made by:Alfredo Zalce |
Production date: 1938

print; portfolio

Title: El Plantel Henequén Mexican people |
Museum number: 2008,7069.1.12 |
Producer name: Print made by:Alfredo ZalcePublished by:Associated American Artists |
Production date: 1946

print; book; book-illustration

Museum number: 2008,7074.10.1-5.a |
Producer name: Print made by:Alfredo ZalcePrint made by:Alberto Beltran |
Production date: 1949

print; poster

Museum number: 2008,7073.16 |
Producer name: Print made by:Alfredo ZalcePublished by:Taller de Gráfica Popular |
Production date: 1952-1954

print

Title: José Guadalupe Posada and Calaveras |
Museum number: 2008,7069.42 |
Producer name: BIOG130911 Print made by:Alfredo Zalce |
Production date: 1948

print

Title: Propaganda |
Museum number: 2008,7114.6 |
Producer name: Print made by:Alfredo ZalcePublished by:Taller de Gráfica Popular |
Production date: 1939

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