Loose prints by 16 artists published by the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Apartado Postal 8367, Mexico D.F.).
The prints depict scenes from Mexican history from the 1870s to the 1940s, concentrating on the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), as well as representations of the social and civil injustices suffered under the dictatorship of President Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911).
The portfolio contains a letterpress prologue signed collectively by the ‘artists of the Taller’; an index of the prints with a description of each written by Alberto Morales Jiminez; and a ‘Declaration of the Principles’ of the Taller.
Print number 85 by Ignacio Iguirre is printed on the penultimate page of the introductory pages (also enlarged on the cover) and does not form a separate sheet.
Hannes Meyer (former director of the Bauhaus at Dessau) was the technical director of the edition and Lena Bergner designed the layout, folder and format.
According to Prignitz, the work for this portfolio started in 1945.
Name: Leopoldo Méndez
Type: Artist
Name: Luis Arenal
Type: Artist
Name: Isidoro Ocampo
Type: Artist
Name: Pablo O'Higgins
Type: Artist
Artists Dates: March 1, 1904 - July 16, 1983
Artist Information: Pablo Esteban O'Higgins (born Paul Higgins Stevenson) was an American-Mexican artist, muralist and illustrator. He was one of the founders of the Taller de Grafica Popular in 1937, and one it’s most important members.
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, O'Higgins was raised there and in San Diego, California.
In 1922 he abandoned his first career as a pianist and entered the Academy of Arts in San Diego. Within two years he'd become a student of Diego Rivera, assisting Rivera on his murals at the National School of Agriculture at Chapingo, and the Public Education Secretariat. Like Rivera, O'Higgins became an active member of the Mexican Communist Party.
He immigrated to Mexico permanently in 1924, joined the party in 1927, and maintained his party membership until 1947. His political illustrations for the Daily Worker won him a year's study at the Academy of Art in Moscow on a Soviet Scholarship in 1933.
In 1937, O'Higgins was the co-founder, with fellow artists Leopoldo Méndez and Luis Arenal, of the Taller de Gráfica Popular ("People's Graphic Workshop”). The Taller became inspiration to many politically active leftist artists; for example, American expressionist painter Byron Randall went on to found similar artist collectives after becoming an associate member.
In May 1940 O'Higgins had the honor of being the only non-native Mexican artist with work included in the seminal "Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art" exhibit organized by the Museum of Modern Art.
In 1961 O'Higgins was awarded honorary Mexican citizenship for "his contributions to the national arts and education”. His mural work can be seen at the Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market, Mexico City, and his 1945 mural for the Shipscalers Union Hall in Seattle is installed in Kane Hall at the University of Washington in Seattle. The mural depicts SSU’s history as a strongly anti-racist, anti-discriminatory, and progressive force in social politics.
Among O'Higgins' students was the American graphic designer Bob Cato.
Name: Mariana Yampolsky
Type: Artist
Name: Alfredo Zalce
Type: Artist
Name: Alberto Morales Jiminez
Type: Artist
Name: Ignacio Iguirre
Type: Artist
Name: Hannes Meyer
Type: Director
Name: Lena Bergner
Type: Designer
Name: Alberto Beltram
Type: Artist
