Mother and Child 1935

This is a lithograph print by Emilio Amero, made in 1935. The tonal range he coaxes from lithographic crayon is amazing! The way the forms emerge from the ground, shifting into focus, reminds me of memory, of trying to grasp something just out of reach. I imagine him in the studio, that crayon in hand, coaxing the forms into being. What was he thinking as he worked? Mother and Child - such a loaded, archetypal subject. The tenderness is palpable, but there's also something strange, almost surreal about the composition. The mother's pose is unnatural, the child's face blank. Maybe Amero was thinking about how the ideal of motherhood often clashes with the reality. The ambiguity in the work allows it to communicate on many levels. It enters into a dialogue with art history, with Mexican Modernism, and with the universal experience of parenthood.