print
- Museum number
- 2008,7072.8
- Title
- Object: El casamiento (The wedding)
- Description
-
A man and a woman holding two babies. 1930
Woodcut
- Production date
- 1930
- Dimensions
-
Height: 90 millimetres
-
Width: 130 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This belongs to a series of 13 woodcuts made on scraps of wood while Siqueiros was imprisoned in 1930, after being arrested as a member of the banned Communist party (see John Ittmann, 'Mexico and Modern Printmaking', Philadelphia 2006, pp.160-4, pls.180-93). The whole series was published after his release in 1931 in Taxco in an edition of 100 on red paper, under the title '13 Grabados', with an introduction by William Spratling (a facsimile issued in 1992 is in the BM). There was evidently an earlier edition of 10 on white paper, to which this impression and Ittmann pl.193 belong. The titles come from the 1931 edition.
Text from 'Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints 1910-1960', Dawn Adès and Alison McClean, with the assistance of Laura Campbell, edited by Mark McDonald, BMP, 2009.
'In 1930 Siqueiros spent six months in prison after he was arrested for his association with the Communist Party, which had been banned in Mexico. During his jail sentence he made a series of thirteen woodcuts from scraps of wood. These focused on social issues such as class, poverty, prostitution and strikes. He was released from prison in 1931, but was forced into exile to the town of Taxco, a silver-mining city south-west of Mexico City, and it was here that he collated his thirteen woodcuts into a portfolio entitled 'Siqueiros: 13 Grabados', printed on orange paper. William Spratling from the Weyhe Gallery wrote an introduction.
This impression is from an earlier edition of Siqueiros's prison series, printed on buff paper. Signed in pencil by the artist and numbered 5/10, it shows a man and a woman each holding a baby in their arms. To the right, a man wearing a top hat standing in an opening looks at the group. The only indication of the subject is title of the print written in pencil, 'El casamiento' ('The wedding').'
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2009/10 Oct-Apr, BM, Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints, cat 28
2010/11 Nov-Feb, Nottingham, Djanogly Gallery, Revolution on Paper
2011 June-Aug, Newcastle, Hatton Gallery, Revolution on Paper
- Acquisition date
- 2008
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2008,7072.8