Title: Mexican Art (The Colour Library of Art)
Publisher: Paul Hamlyn, Middlesex, England
Publication Date: 1965
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Dust Jacket: No Dust Jacket
Edition: 1967 reprint.
39 printed pages. 59 plates in full color. Duotone text illustrations. Ink inscription on front free endpaper "Ronnie from Cindy. Xmas '68". Paste down endpapers with clear tape along borders. Else in very good condition. 24.5 x 27.5 cm. Black cloth with gilt printed face mask on upper cover. Provenance: from the Library of modernist abstract artisit Ron Hitchins (1926-2019), purchased from his estate & from his Malvern Road, London E8 house in 2021.Hitchins had a successful first one-man show at the Whibley Gallery 60, George Street, London W1 in 1965.
Hitchins’ work is held by the Glasgow School of Art and at the Rose Lipman Library, Hackney & a bronze bust of Hitchens was cast by friend, Canadian sculptor, Maryon Kantaroff (1933-2019) who in 1992 received the prestigious President's Award of the Sculptors Society of Canada.
In 1960 the BBC’s Monitor arts show transmitted the 23 minute documentary, “The Light Fantastic”, directed by Ken Russell, written & presented by Hitchins. It tells Hitchins’ personal story from Cockney barrow boy to professional Flamenco dancer. In 2019 Chris Gomez of Reach Extra updated the documentary sequences with recent footage of Hitchins, living his whole life in the East End of London and dancing into his eighties.