Description

Pair of Western Jo Mora Chromolithographed Posters, each of these colorful and amusing posters depicts the evolving life of the western cowboy and the Native American of the western states with dozens of vignette scenes from each, both marked Jo Mora Publications, Monterey, California in lower left and Copyright 1933 By Jo Mora lower right, 24.5" x 32".

Joseph Jacinto Mora (1876-1947) was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, the son of Domingo Mora, a well-known painter and sculptor who brought his family to the United States in the mid-1890s and became a teacher in New York at the Art Students League. Joseph studied at the Pingry Academy in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the Art Students League with his father in New York City, and in Boston at the Cowles Art School, and with William Merritt Chase. He worked as a staff artist and cartoonist for the Boston Herald.

In 1894, he took a 4-year tour of Mexico, and the American Southwest, working as a cowboy to earn money. In 1903, moved to San Jose, California. In 1904, he returned to Arizona and New Mexico and lived with Hopi and Navajo tribes, learning their languages and painting depictions of their ceremonies, especially the Katsina ceremonial dances. One of the results of his western travels was a series of humorous maps that were spoofs of the national parks and that were made into posters. In the 1930s, the maps sold for 25 cents each and were distributed through souvenir shops at the parks. He also painted a watercolor series, Horsemen of the West and wrote two books, Trail Dust and Saddle Leather and Californios. In 1914, Mora and his wife moved to San Francisco, and then in 1920 to Carmel, where he completed his most famous work, the Father Serra group of sculpted figures that was placed at the San Carlos Mission. In 1998, the Monterey Museum of Art held a retrospective of his work which includes sculpture and architectural adornments.

AUCTIONEER'S NOTE: These posters were reprinted and issued by Mora's son.

Condition

Each with slight tear in corner with no paper loss, VG+.