(Mexico, 1885-1968)

Untitled, figures looking to Maya stela, 1935, signed and inscribed in pencil somewhat indistinctly "Para Weedie Laughlin/recuerdo.../Rob. Montenegro Mexico 1935", also initialed in print "RM", lithograph on cream paper, sight 21 x 17-1/2 in. 

Provenance: Michael L. Laughlin Estate, Aiken, South Carolina

Note: Roberto Montenegro was a prominent Mexican painter, muralist, and printmaker. He began his artistic training in 1903 under the Italian painter Félix Bernardelli in Guadalajara. In 1905, he enrolled at the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Mexico City, studying alongside Diego Rivera, and was later awarded a grant to continue his studies in Europe. After two years in Madrid, he moved to Paris in 1907, where he encountered Cubism and met key figures such as Picasso, Braque, and Gris. After later returning to Mexico, Montenegro became a founder of the Mexican Mural Renaissance, and was one of the few artists to be commissioned for the first government-sponsored murals in Mexico City. With his murals adorning the walls of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, next to works by Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, and directing for a time at this institution in Mexico City, Montenegro remains one of the leading Mexican artists of his time.