Alberto Beltran Pencil Signed Taller de Grafica Lithograph Grinding Sugar Cane Mexico 1946 in Collector’s Mat

Title: Grinding Sugar, Puebla (Mexico)
Artist: Alberto Beltran Garcia - (1923-2002) - Mexican artist
Technique: Stone Lithograph
Signature: Signed in pencil by the artist
Date Published: 1946
Edition: Limited Edition of 250 published by Associated American Artists and Taller de Grafica Popular, Mexico (The Workshop of Popular Graphic Arts)
Dimensions:
Sheet size - 13-3/4 x 16-1/2-1/2 inches
Image size - 11-1/8 x 13-7/8 inches
Mat size - 15-1/2 x 20 inches
Condition: Very Good condition with some light overall age toning.
References: Catalog of the TGP (Taller de Grafica Popular) - No. 7366
Mexican Art - A Portfolio of Mexican People and Places
Printing: A strong image expertly printed in black ink on natural wove paper.
Presentation: Placed in a simple ivory collector's mat. Blank on the back, not laid down. Ships in a plastic archival sleeve.

Alberto Beltran was a prominent member of the Taller de Grafica Popular cooperative workshop in Mexico. The workshop's mission was to work for social, political, and economic justice for the people of Mexico. The artists often promoted the dignity of work and culture.

"Grinding Sugar Cane" shows a typical village scene where sugar cane is being chopped and run through a horse-powered grinding machine that squeezes out the liquid sugar. This work was part of a 1946 set of 12 lithographs published jointly by the Mexican Graphics Workshop and Associated American Artists.

Alberto Beltran Garcia was one of Mexico's most popular engravers, illustrators and political cartoonists who remained faithful to his country's revolutionary tradition throughout his life.

The son of a Mexico City tailor, he studied art in an era when artists such as Diego Rivera were producing grandiose murals celebrating the 1910 revolution. Beltran's more down-to-earth attitude fitted better with the philosophy of the Taller de la Grafica Popular (workshop of popular graphics), of which he became a leading member.

In the late 1940s, Beltran began drawing political cartoons and illustrations for leading daily newspapers in Mexico City and across the country. Later he used his industry connections to found the now-closed, image-driven newspaper El Popular. He also helped start the Mexico City daily El Dia. Beltran then turned his attention to painting, engraving and sculpting. In 1956, he won Mexico's National Engraving Prize.