Revolution on paper:
Mexican prints 1910–1960
22 October 2009 – 5
April 2010 / Room
90 / Admission free
The exhibition is the first in Europe to focus on the great
age of Mexican printmaking in the first half of the 20th century.
It features 130 works by over 40 artists including prints by
Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro
Siqueiros.
Between 1910 and 1920, Mexico was convulsed by a socialist
revolution that aimed to topple the elite ruling class and improve
conditions for society at large. The left-wing government which
emerged laid great emphasis on art as a vehicle to promote the
values of the revolution. Walls of public buildings were covered
with vast murals, and workshops made prints for mass
distribution.
Some of the finest prints from the period were
produced by the ‘three greats’ of Mexican art: Diego Rivera, José
Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
The exhibition includes Rivera’s famous
Emiliano Zapata and his horse which has achieved iconic
status in 20th-century art. It also features works by artists that
rose to prominence after the founding of the Taller del Gráfica
Popular (the national print workshop) in 1937, and earlier works by
José Guadalupe Posada, who was posthumously recognised by the
revolutionaries as the father of printmaking in Mexico.
Image caption: Diego Rivera, Emiliano
Zapata and his horse, 1932.
Presented by The Art Fund. © 2009,
Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museum Trust, Mexico
D.F./DACS