Seated girl (Tehuantepec Bather)

With Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros has often been described as one the ‘the three greats’ (Los Tres Grandes) of Mexican mural painting. He was also a devoted printmaker and produced a corpus of striking lithographs. Siqueiros was attracted to lithography because of its capacity to emulate the forms and scale of mural painting and for its capacity to produce multiple impressions. During the summer of 1931, the artist and illustrator William Spratling who was in Mexico, arranged to have four large drawings by Siqueiros converted into lithographs of which this is one (the other three are 31.91.6, 31.91.8, 31.91.7). They were printed and published by the Weyhe Gallery in New York. Impressions were then sent to Siqueiros in Taxco in September where he signed and returned them, retaining impressions for himself. This impression is from a special edition (outside the editioned set of 35 prints published by the Weyhe Gallery) made sometime after 1931 using offset lithography. The subject of the seated bather reflects Siqueiros’ interest in forms found on ancient pottery.