Francisco Díaz de León (1897-1975) looms large over the history of modern Mexican art: an outstanding engraver, illustrator, book designer, photographer, professor, founder of the Open-Air Painting School in Tlalpan and director of the School of Book Arts, the energy he brought to all of these activities has influenced several generations of Mexican artists. As a printmaker, Díaz de León’s style married a bold modernist graphic pop with warmth and intimacy of lineation, and he developed this style across a vast body of work, comprising some 1,500 printworks. This monograph paints a general panorama of Díaz de León’s output and career, and presents for the first time his hitherto little-known work as a photographer, as well as spreads from the many books he illustrated, previously unpublished writings and of course a wide sampling of his much-loved works in printmaking.
