Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints
1910 – 1960
Supported by The Monument Trust and the Mexico Tourism
Board
22 October 2009 – 5 April 2010
Room 90
Admission free
The exhibition will be the first in Europe focusing on the great
age of Mexican printmaking in the first half of the twentieth
century.
Between 1910 and 1920 the country was convulsed by the first
socialist revolution, from which emerged a strong left-wing
government that laid great stress on art as a vehicle for promoting
the values of the revolution. This led to a pioneering programme to
cover the walls of public buildings with vast murals, and later to
setting up print workshops to produce works for mass distribution
and education. All the prints in the exhibition come from the
British Museum’s collection which has been acquired thanks to the
generosity of the Aldama Foundation, Dave and Reba Williams and The
Art Fund.
Some of the finest of these prints were produced by the three
great men of Mexican art of the period known as ‘los tres grandes’:
Diego Rivera, José Clemente
Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The
best-known print is Rivera’s Emiliano Zapata and his horse
which has achieved iconic status in twentieth century Mexican art.
Other prints including Rivera’s portrait of Frida Kahlo, Siqueiros’
Dama Negra, Orozco’s The Masses, demonstrate the
extraordinary breadth, imagination, and quality of the works shown.
In addition to the Los Tres Grandes, many other artist were
involved and rose to prominence, especially after the founding of
the Taller del Gráfica Popular (TGP) in Mexico City in 1937. The
range of material is fascinating: as well as single-sheet artists’
prints, there are large posters with designs in woodcut or
lithography by these same artists, and illustrated books on many
different themes. The exhibition will also include earlier works
around the turn of the century by the popular printmaker,
José Guadalupe Posada, who was adopted by the
revolutionaries as the archetypal printmaker who worked for the
people, and whose macabre dances of skeletons have always
fascinated Europeans.
Printmakers in Mexico often belonged to groups, societies and
movements which were underpinned by their commitment to politics.
The earliest movement was Stridentism, an avant garde group which
was launched 1921 and was similar to the Italian Futurist movement
because it rejected the past. The Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP)
was formed in 1937 by Luis Arenal,
Leopoldo Méndez and Pablo
O’Higgins as a graphic arts workshop which was influenced
by communism. TGP members had access to printing equipment at the
workshop and did not need to have artistic training. The collective
produced prints for posters, flyers and portfolios which were
printed on cheap paper. Their prints often supported the campaigns
of trade and workers unions in Mexico. For example, Pablo O’Higgins
and Alberto Beltrán collectively made a poster advertising the
first Latin American Petrol Workers conference. The TGP was also
particularly committed to the fight against international Fascism.
Angel Bracho’s striking red and black poster,
Victoria! (1945), which celebrates the allied victory over the
Nazi’s in 1945, is a key example of the TGP’s anti-Fascist stance.
Other printmakers addressed subjects such as corruption, capitalism
and Mexican daily life in their prints.
In 1957, the TGP held a major exhibition at the Fine Arts Palace
in Mexico City to celebrate its twentieth anniversary as a
printmaking collective and its activity continues even today on a
minor scale. Members of the TGP and other artists’ groups have
published extensively in support of the visual arts. Other artists
associated with the TGP went on to establish art schools,
institutions or museums.
The exhibition is supported by The Monument Trust and the Mexico
Tourism Board. The exhibition will tour to three venues across the
UK after it closes at the British Museum.
For further information or images please contact Esme
Wilson on +44 (0)20 7323 8394 or ewilson@britishmuseum.org
Note to editors
- In September 2010 the exhibition will travel to three venues
across the UK after its closure at the British Museum. Details to
follow. The tour is organised under the British Museum’s
Partnership UK scheme.
- A beautifully illustrated catalogue will accompany the
exhibition. Published by British Museum Press and priced £25.
- As important as the period of Mexican history that this
exhibition is covering, is the inspiration that the revolution gave
to the artists displayed in this exhibition. They lived
through this time and as such their art has become a part
of the history of Mexico and the world. We at the Mexico
Tourism Board are very proud to support this exhibition.
- The Department of Prints and Drawings: The
Department cares for the national collection of prints and
drawings, all of which are accessible to the public through its
Students’ Room and through changing exhibitions and loans around
the UK and abroad. The collection comprises approximately 60,000
drawings and over two and a half million prints dating from the
beginning of the fifteenth century to the present day. More than
one million works from the collection are searchable online, 321,000 of them with
images.
- The Art Fund is the UK’s leading independent art charity. It
offers grants to help UK museums and galleries enrich their
collections; campaigns on behalf of museums and their visitors; and
promotes the enjoyment of art. It is entirely funded from
public donations and has 80,000 members. Since 1903 the charity has
helped museums and galleries all over the UK secure 860,000 works
of art for their collections. The Art Fund also acts as a conduit
for lifetime gifts and bequests of works of art to UK museums and
galleries, and since 1903 more than 60,500 objects have entered
public collections through this route
- The Aldama Foundation was set up by two collectors who
regularly spend time in Mexico, where they have acquired a wide
range of prints and illustrated books. Last year, through The Art
Fund, they presented the British Museum with a collection of 16
Mexican posters, created between 1938 and 1954. The prints are by
Alberto Beltran, Ángel Bracho, Arturo García Bustos, Jesus
Escobedo, Leopoldo Méndez, Francesco Mora, Pablo O’Higgins, Isidoro
Ocampo and Alfredo Zalce, a selection of which are included in
Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints 1910-1960 .
- Zapata by Diego Rivera was acquired for the British Museum
thanks to a 100% grant of £25,061 from The Art Fund. For more
information contact the Press Office on 020 7225 4888 or visit
www.artfund.org . The Art
Fund is a Registered Charity No. 209174