GRACIELA RODO BOULANGER Bolivian, born 1935 Little Musicians Color Lithograph Color lithograph depicting a group of four stylized, round-faced musicians playing saxophone, flute, trumpet, and cello, set within a large white oval against a dark teal ground. Signed "G. Rodo Boulanger" in pencil at the lower right and annotated in Roman numerals "X/C" or numbered 10 of an edition of 100. Framed. Not examined out of frame. Sight (as matted) 24.5 x 15.5 inches; frame: 32 x 24 inches $150-250
ARTIST PROFILE: Graciela Rodo was born in 1935 in La Paz, Bolivia, and is noted for her artworks featuring stylized renderings of children. Her love of art was influenced by her mother, a concert pianist, and her father, a businessman and art connoisseur; she studied both music and art throughout childhood, giving her first piano recital at age 15 and holding her first art exhibitions in Vienna and Salzburg at age 18. Finding she could not devote herself fully to both passions, she turned all her energy to painting at age 22, and went on to study etching and printmaking under Johnny Friedlaender in Paris alongside Rene Carcan. She married a Frenchman named Boulanger, giving her the public name Graciela Rodo Boulanger, and in 1966 her artistic ambitions began to be realized with the publication of her first editions of engravings and her first exhibition in the United States. In 1979, UNICEF designated her official artist for the International Year of the Child poster, and two of her tapestries were presented in the hall of the UN General Assembly; the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in Washington, D.C. gave a retrospective of her work in 1983, and in 1986 the Metropolitan Opera of New York commissioned her poster for Mozart's The Magic Flute. In 1993, the World Federation of the UN Associations chose one of her paintings to illustrate both a stamp and a limited-edition print on endangered species, and more than 200 exhibitions of her work have been held on five continents. Her pieces, often infused with musical themes drawn from her own childhood training under her pianist mother, are held in the permanent collections of institutions including La Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America.
