Date/Time
Date(s) - January 28, 2012 - April 7, 2012
10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Location
Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, University Center for the Arts

January 28 – April 7, 2012

The Calle Collection of Mexican Prints focuses on the work of artists associated with the Taller de Gràfica Popular (Workshop for Popular Graphic Art or TGP) which was founded in 1937. While Mexican mural art is well documented, far lesser known is the prolific printmaking industry, best exemplified by the work of the TGP, which flourished in Mexico during the first half of the century. The UAM exhibition will focus on this under-recognized aspect of Mexican art, and showcase approximately 50 works, many by the prominent artists associated with the TGP including Leopoldo Mendez, Luis Arenal, and Angel Bracho. From 1937 through the 1960s the TGP produced thousands of prints, posters, and illustrated books by Mexican artists and prominent international printmakers who joined them because of the atmosphere of inclusiveness, tolerance and collaboration. The TGP had an open, anti-elitist policy where women, the poor, indigenous peoples and artists of color, were welcome.  Key to the TGP’s policy was the belief that the social and formal aspects of art were inseparable. TGP prints primarily focus on world politics and social injustice, tied to their aim of promoting democratic interests in the face of the international rise of fascism.