Posted May 19, 2003

Basic biographical information about Mexican artists has historically been hard to come by, but not anymore. 1200 Mexican Artists, an Identification Guide, a new artist dictionary by Don Allen Shorts, covers more artists than any single reference currently on the market. Shorts combines data from dozens of Mexican art reference books and catalogues into a well written, well researched, reasonably priced, and easy-to-use encyclopedia-style book that opens with an essay on how to identify Mexican art.

1200 Mexican Artists includes painters, sculptors, graphic artists, photographers, and calendar artists who were active from colonial times to the present. The book is particularly strong on twentieth century Mexican artists. Typical entries contain basic information like birth and death dates and career highlights, but also have plenty of extras like names of books where additional information and illustrations can be found, remarks about how the artists sign their work, and comments on their styles of art. At the rear of the book is an extensive bibliography as well as lists of artists with unusual signatures (and how they sign), Mexican artists with non-Spanish surnames, and names and contact information for dealers and auction houses that specialize in Mexican art, both in the United States and in Mexico.