Revolution on Paper: Mexican Prints 1910-1960 - Softcover

Dawn Adès; Alison McClean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714126705 ISBN 13: 9780714126708

Publisher: British Museum Press, 2009

Synopsis

Between 1910 and 1920 Mexico was convulsed by socialist revolution, from which emerged a strong left-wing government that laid great stress on art as a vehicle for promoting revolutionary values. 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. This book is published to accompany the first ever exhibition on this period to be held in Europe, on view at the British Museum from 27 October ― 28 February 2010. It will feature approximately 130 prints by over 40 artists, including the three great men of Mexican art of the period: Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. A fascinating range of material includes not only single-sheet artists’ prints but also large posters with designs in woodcut or lithography, as well as illustrated books on many different themes. Also included are earlier works by the popular engraver José Guadalupe Posada, adopted by the revolutionaries as the archetypal printmaker working for the people, and whose macabre dances of skeletons have always fascinated Europeans. Essays by Alison McClean and Dawn Ades will set Mexican printmaking in its artistic and political context. The book will also contain concise biographies of all the artists featured.

About this title

Review

"While minimalist in its design, this publication is educational in focus containing substantial essays by Dawn Ades, accomplished scholar of Latin American art history, and Alison McLean, specialist on the all-important Mexican printmaking collective, the Taller de Grafica Popular (Popular Graphics Workshop or TGP); both draw from select works included in the exhibition as springboards to elucidate a chronological cultural, social and political history of the time-period at hand, from 1900 to 1960". --Teresa Eckmann, Print Quarterly

About the Author

DAWN ADÈS is Professor of Art History and Theory at the University of Essex. She pioneered the study of Latin American art in the United Kingdom and has also published widely on Dada, Surrealism, and photography.

Edition details

• Publisher: British Museum Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0714126705
• ISBN 13: 9780714126708
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Mark McDonald