MinerAlert
MinerAlert
Solidarity and Struggle:
The Politics of Graphic Design in Mexico During and After the Revolution
April 15 - August 7, 2010
Project Space
Solidarity and Struggle: the Politics of Graphic Design in Mexico during and after the Revolution complemented the international and contemporary exhibition Up Against the Wall: Posters of Social Protest (also on view at the Rubin Center April 15-August 7, 2010). Solidarity and Struggle was comprised of sixteen historic posters from Mexico’s foremost political workshop, Taller Grafico Popular (borrowed from the collection of the University of New Mexico Art Museum) and several copies of the illustrated political magazine El Hijo Ahuizote (borrowed from C.L. Sonnichesen Special Collections Department of the University Library at The University of Texas at El Paso), all of which are historical precedents to contemporary protest art. This exhibition is one of the several organized by the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts that acknowledge 2010 as the centennial of the Mexican Revolution and the bi-centennial of Mexican independence from Spain.
The Taller de Gráfica Popular (English translation: People’s Graphic Workshop) was an artist's print collective founded in Mexico in 1937 by artists Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O'Higgins, and Luis Arenal following the dissolution of the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR) (English translation: Revolutionary Writers’ and Artists’ League), a group of artists who had supported the goals of the Mexican Revolution. Thus, the TGP artists were born into and grew up under the influence of what would become the 20th century chapter of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1940). The collective was primarily concerned with using art to advance revolutionary social causes. Initially called the Taller Editorial de Gráfica Popular, it built upon of a rich tradition of printmaking in Mexico, particularly the legacy of José Guadalupe Posada. During its heyday, the Taller specialized in linoleum prints and woodcuts. It produced posters, handbills, banners, and portfolio editions that promoted anti-militarism, organized labor, and anti-facism. Today, the TGP still functions and offers art workshops for children.
El Hijo del Ahuizote (English translation: The Son of Ahuizote) was a Mexican newspaper founded in 1885 and continuing through the early 20th century that poked fun at the ruling class and government. It criticized Porfiro Díaz, who was president of Mexico 1876-1911 (with the exception of 1880-1884), who is now widely thought to have been a dictator, and who fell from power during the Mexican Revolution. El Hijo del Ahuizote is a remarkable example of Mexico's nineteenth-century critical consciousness and sought to reveal the hidden aspects of Mexico's national image. It did this by making ironic allegories out of the official allegories, while often sharing the same basic abstract and pragmatic official goals (for example, progress as a doctrine, and immigrants and foreign investment as a development policy). These ironies were commonly constructed out of political opposition to specific policies of the Porfirian regime.
Exhibition Generously Supported in Part by:
