'Tehuantepec Woman' by Angelo Anthony Sottosanti, 1941, Works Progress Administration, Oaxaca, Rivera, Golden Gate International Exhibition, NYMoMA

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Signed lower right, 'Sottosanti' for Angelo Anthony Sottosanti (American, 1917-2004) and dated 1941.

A dramatic Modernist study of a Tehuantepec … Read more Signed lower right, 'Sottosanti' for Angelo Anthony Sottosanti (American, 1917-2004) and dated 1941.

A dramatic Modernist study of a Tehuantepec woman from Oaxaca shown wearing the traditional, flowered huipil (tunic) with a broad heavily starched and pleated flounce framing the face. This distinctive head-dress - called a huipil grande, or bidaniro - is a child's baptismal gown and is traditionally worn by the Istmenas, women from the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Born in Pennsylvania, Angelo Sottosanti first studied at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design. He subsequently attended the Da Vinci School and New York's Art Students League. In 1938, he worked in New York on murals for the Works Progress Administration. The following year, he toured Mexico on a motorcycle with a sidecar full of art supplies and became inspired by the work of Jose Clemente Orozco. While in Mexico, the subjects of his paintings were the people he met on his travels down to Tehuantepec.

In 1940, Sottosanti was invited to exhibit his work at the Fine Arts Building at San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE). While there he also worked with Diego Rivera, grinding and mixing color for Rivera's fresco mural in the "Art in Action" section of the exposition. In 1941, Sottosanti, with many other New Deal artists, took up residence in the famous "Monkey Block" building in San Francisco. In the 1940s and 1950s, he held solo exhibits at the Palace of Fine Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Crocker Museum in Sacramento as well as in many San Francisco galleries.

Group exhibitions:
Golden Gate International Exhibition, 1939; Museum of Modern Art (NY) 1938; CA State Fair, 1960; San Francisco Art Festival, 1978; et al.

Solo exhibitions:
Paul Elder's Gallery (SF), 1940; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1948; Crocker Museum, Sacramento., 1948; Maxwell Galleries, 1956; San Francisco Museum of Art, 1958; et al.

Reference:
Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 3, page 3111; Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 2, page 1044; Mallett’s Index of Artists, Supplement, Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, Peter Smith: New York 1948 Edition, R.R. Bowker Company 1940, page 263; et al. See less