Joy Laville (born 1923)
Dog and Man in Boat, 1990
lithograph
12 x 12 inches
30.5 x 30.5 cm
Edition IV/X
signed lower right, numbered lower left on front
unframed. Joy Laville is a prolific artist whose career began and mostly developed in Mexico where she studied under San Miguel de Allende. While there she met Mexican writer Jorge Ibargüengoitia, whom she married in 1973. During this time she worked mostly in pastels. In 1983, Ibargüengoitia died in a plane crash in Spain, and Laville’s painting changed dramatically. Ibargüengoitia described her paintings as neither symbolic, nor allegorical, nor realistic, rather “they are a window into a mysteriously familiar world. They are enigmas which are not necessary to resolve, but it is interesting to perceive them.”
Although best known for painting (oils and acrylics), Laville has worked in other media, including graphics, pastels, and sculpture. She made prints, including this one entitled Dog and Man in Boat, at the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, NM. She considers her life in Mexico as the context for most of her work and thinks of herself as a Mexican artist, despite having been born in England.
In 2012, Laville received the Bellas Artes Medal for her life’s work and is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores in Mexico.

excellent