Quote - Taller de Grafica Popular
Taller de Grafica Popular. Estampas de la Revolucion Mexicana. 85 grabados de los artistas del Taller de Grafica Popular. Mexico: La Estampa Mexicana, 1947. Portfolio XXXI (from 50 hors commerce), issuing from an edition of 500. Complete with 84 linoleum block-prints, on variously-coloured sheets (40 x 27 cm.); the thin sheets are remarkably well-preserved here and housed individually in two archival albums. Each print captioned to lower margin. Accompanied by [12] pp. catalogue, featuring a collective introduction from the TGP, its declaration of principles, and a lengthy index, in which Alberto Morales Jimenez provides contextual descriptions for the range of subjects and scenes depicted (those that are dated being from 1879 to 1942). Text in Spanish. Accompanied by original card-stock portfolio (41 x 28 cm.), with colophon printed to inner flap and a large linoleum block design (i.e. #85) printed continuously across both front and rear panels. The portfolio remains bright and clean, with a clean split at spine (no loss); candidate for rebinding, or repurposing as over-sized print.
Almost a decade after emerging from the dissolution of the Mexican Popular Front organization LEAR (Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios)—and only a few years removed from WWII—the collective of artists known as Taller de Grafica Popular (TGP) would here release a kind of iconography of the Mexican Revolution; designing an historical series of scenes-to-meditate-upon, for a People that now found itself threatened with renewed imperialist threats. (The Revolution was notably depicted here as a continuous one, with a number of the prints depicting anti-Nazi efforts). As was often the case, the TGP worked on this portfolio collaboratively, discussing ideas for individual compositions (of remarkably heterogeneous styles) and providing critiques in weekly sessions. Some of the 16 artists being: Leopoldo Méndez, Julius Heller, Fernando Castro Pacheco, Pablo O'Higgins, Luis Arenal, Francisco Mora, Isidro Ocampo, Mariana Yamplosky, Alberto Beltrán, Alfredo Zalce, and Ignacio Aguirre, with one of his designs being chosen as the over-sized cover image, printed across both front and rear panels of the portfolio.
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