print;
broadside
- Museum number
- 2008,7108.7
- Title
- Object: Zapata. Toda la tierra para los campesinos. (Zapata. All the land for the peasants.)
- Description
-
Broadside showing Emiliano Zapata and other agrarian soldiers holding a banner. 1938
Woodcut printed on red paper with a verse underneath in letterpress
- Production date
- 1938
- Dimensions
-
Height: 295 millimetres
-
Width: 202 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Prignitz 239 (p.344) catalogues this as by an unknown artist unknown, published by the TGP (but see below).
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.
The printmaker responsible for this print is unknown, but it was printed at the TGP shortly after the workshop was established. The print shows Zapata on his horse behind a banner held by his supporters bearing the slogan 'Toda la tierra para los campesinos' ('All land for the peasants'). The figure of Zapata is used to encourage continued social reform in Mexico, and is printed on red paper, the colour of revolution.
The text beneath the image explains that although Zapata, who fought for agrarian reform during the Mexican Revolution, was assassinated in April 1919, his cry of 'Land and Freedom' still needed to be heard in Mexico. When this print was made in 1938, President Lázaro Cárdenas, who held office from 1934 to 1940, had started to distribute land as part of the reform process. However, not all the land had been given back to the peasants, nor did they benefit from better economic circumstances, and exploitation by landowners persisted. The text motivates peasants to continue the struggle that Zapata had started, and to fight for the remaining 70,000,000 hectares of land that still belonged to major landowners, ending with the powerful words: 'Down with those who exploit Mexican peasants. Long live Zapata! Long Live the Mexican Revolution!'
(supplementary information)
Peter Schneider has informed us that this print is illustrated in the 1974 catalogue 'Latin American Prints from the Museum of Modern Art', published for an exhibition at the Center for Inter-American Relations in New York. The catalogue attributes it to Leopoldo Mendez and the copy illustrated bears Mendez's signature.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2009/10 Oct-April, BM, Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints, cat 23
2010/11 Nov-Feb, Nottingham, Djanogly Gallery, Revolution on Paper
2011 June-Aug, Newcastle, Hatton Gallery, Revolution on Paper
2013-2014, Nov-Feb, Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, Art Turning Left
- Acquisition date
- 2008
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2008,7108.7
