Emilio Amero
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Emilio Amero (b. Ixtlahuaca, 1901 -
d. Norman, Oklahoma, 1976) was among the zeitgeist of the Mexican
Modern art movement. He was also a member of the first group of
muralists commissioned during Post-Revolutionary Mexico, working
side by side such luminaries as José Clemente Orozco, Carlos Merida,
and Diego Rivera. From the fecund milieu of 1920s Mexico, Amero
fully embraced its lessons and began to express his personal vision
in painting, printmaking, illustration, photography, and filmmaking.
In particular, Amero developed a great passion for lithography,
establishing several print workshops during his career and would
influence a generation of young artists.
Like many of Mexico's leading
artists of the day, Amero had an important relationship with the
United States. In the late 20s, he went to New York City via Cuba,
where he worked as an illustrator for several publications and Saks
Fifth Avenue. More important was the lithography lessons he received
from George Miller, the master lithographer.
He returned to Mexico in 1930,
where he established a successful lithography workshop at ENBA.
Among the artists who attended were such noteworthy artists as
Bracho, Jean Charlot, Olga Costa, Gabriel Fernández Ledesma,
Francisco Díaz de León, Dosamantes, Carlos Merida, Chavez Morado,
Orozco Romero, and Alfredo Zalce.
A few years later he returned to
New York, where he became a teacher at the Florence Cane School of
Art, a commissioned Works Progress Administration muralist, and
experimental photographer and cinematographer. He developed a
friendship with the poet Federico García Lorca who wrote a script
for a Dada-esque Amero film involving anthropomorphic machines. He
also had his first solo show at the Julian Levy Gallery and
subsequently helped Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit there.
In the 1940, Amero went to Seattle
to teach at the Cornish School, which had attracted such innovators
as Martha Graham, and John Cage. In 1946, Amero took a professorship
at the University of Oklahoma. There, he established a world-class
print workshop which he led until his retirement in 1968.
