February 15–August 10, 2025

Printmaking has played a central role in the development of the visual arts in modern Mexico, from early devotional engravings of the 1600s to the satirical lithographs of José Guadalupe Posada around 1900. The Muralist movement was inspired by Posada’s “calaveras” (animated skeletons), the Virgin of Guadalupe, and other Christian and nationalist images made popular in prints. Closely intertwined with the advancement of democracy, human rights, and Indigenous cultural identity, printmaking became the primary medium of political engagement in Mexico. Throughout the Mexican Revolution (1910–20), the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), and World War II (1939–45), printmaking was at the forefront of art and politics in Mexico.

In 1937, a group of artists in Mexico City led by Leopoldo Méndez founded the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Workshop of Popular Graphics, or TGP), an artists’ collective with shared goals of promoting social justice and combatting the global rise of fascism through art. The TGP would soon encompass a group of Mexican and international artists who produced some of the most engaging and innovative images of the twentieth century. In the words of American TGP member Elizabeth Catlett, their art came “from the people … for the people.”

Featured at Top Right: Leopoldo Méndez, On the Way to the Market, 1953. Linocut on paper. San Diego Museum of Art, Gift of Forrest D. Colburn, 2008.7. © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City.