Mexico has the oldest printmaking tradition of any country in the Americas. The first press was established in 1539 near the Zócalo—the heart of ancient and modern Mexico City—with materials provided by the publishing firm of Juan Cromberger in Seville, Spain.[1] During the early years, woodcuts and engravings, mainly of religious subjects, were employed for book illustration. As printmaking became widespread, prints came to serve very different needs, as demonstrated by a thesis proclamation printed on silk from 1756. Works such as this one are exceptional and cannot be considered representative of quotidian practice, but they indicate the reach of printmaking and the range of its uses. Prints embody Mexico’s political, social, and artistic depth and engage with the country’s long history. By operating as active agents in the narratives they promote, prints themselves have instigated change, shaping the competing politics, identities, and collective memories of Mexico.
Left: Baltasar Troncoso y Sotomayor (Mexican, 1725–1791), Thesis proclamation of José Vicente Maldonado y Trespalacios, 1756. Published by heirs of María de Rivera, Mexico City. Woodcut, letterpress, and engraving printed on silk with a metallic thread border, 26 5/8 × 19 1/8 in. (67.6 × 48.5 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.559). Right: Juan Campillo (Mexican, active 19th century), after Casimiro Castro (Mexican, 1826–1889), plate XXI from México y sus alrededores. Colección de monumentos, trajes y paisajes (Mexico and its surroundings. Collection of monuments, dress, and landscapes), 1855–56. Published by Decaen, Mexico City. Lithograph, 18 1/2 x 13 1/16 x 1/2 in. (47 x 33.2 x 1.2 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.547)
The founding of the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City in 1781 had significant consequences for printmaking. Following a European model, engraving was part of the curriculum, and in 1831 lithography was introduced to the program.[2] Lithographic workshops soon began producing high-quality prints of subjects that included Mexican topography, dress, and customs for both local and international markets.[3]
By the mid-nineteenth century, printmaking in Mexico increasingly had assumed a social purpose, attending to events of the day that were often viewed through a satirical lens. Early prints generally survive in low numbers and were not collected until the twentieth century. The impulse to preserve them developed alongside the inexorable growth of printmaking, especially after the Mexican Revolution (1910–20), when prints came to serve a broader democratic political agenda that sought to educate Mexicans through art. Prints perfectly suited ideology and ambition: they were cheap, created in multiples, and easily disseminated, thereby differentiating them from easel painting, which came to be regarded as reflecting “bourgeois individualism.”[4] The importance of the country’s pre-Hispanic civilizations, which had largely been suppressed, was also an area of renewed interest for Mexican identity, with Indigenous Mexican traditions increasingly recognized and celebrated.
F. Piquete (Mexican, active 1870s), El pueblo merece malos gobernantes cuando los tolera (People deserve bad political leaders when they tolerate them), caricature no. 46 from San Baltasar, July 1873. Lithograph, 12 1/16 × 8 11/16 × 1 7/16 in. (30.6 × 22 × 3.7 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.546)
Mexico to New York
Among the lesser-known collections at The Met is a group of almost two thousand Mexican prints and illustrated books. The material spans from about 1740 to the 1950s, with the greatest concentration of work created after the late nineteenth century. The collection is distinguished by the number of rare and even unique works in very good condition. Notably, it was not shaped by generations of curators and donors but formed largely through the agency of an individual, Jean Charlot (1898–1979), whose peripatetic life, practice as an artist, and intellectual preoccupations brought him into contact with Met curators in the late 1920s. The charting of Charlot’s beginnings as an artist in Paris and then in Mexico, as well as his subsequent career in the United States, is facilitated by abundant documentation in the form of letters, his personal diaries, and publications.[5] Charlot spent most of the 1920s in Mexico City, where he worked as an artist, writer, and teacher. Through the friendships Charlot formed with artists, he had unique access to their work, and the character of the collection at The Met very much reflects these relationships.
Left: Tina Modotti (Italian, 1896–1942), Jean Charlot, ca. 1923. Gelatin silver print, 9 7/16 × 7 1/16 in. (24 × 18 cm). Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library, Honolulu, Founding Collection Gift of Zohmah Charlot (1981.501.798). Right: Jean Charlot (French, 1898–1979), Il meurt (He dies), station XII, from Chemin de Croix (Stations of the Cross), 1918–20. Woodcut, first edition, 17 × 11 in. (43.2 × 27.9 cm). Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library, Honolulu, Gift of a Charlot Family Member, 2021 (2021.019.109). Jean Charlot © 2024 The Jean Charlot Estate LLC / Member, Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. With permission
He was born Louis Henri Jean Charlot in Paris. His grandfather Louis Goupil was born in Mexico, and his great-uncle Eugène Goupil was a collector of Mexican art, which had an enormous influence on the development of his artistic sensibilities.[6] Charlot and his mother, Anne Goupil Charlot, left France from the Atlantic port of Saint Nazaire on December 31, 1920, arriving in Veracruz, Mexico, on January 23, 1921. Eventually, Charlot shared a studio in Coyoacán (then a village outside Mexico City) with the artist Fernando Leal (1896–1964), and, a year later, in 1922, Charlot became an assistant to the muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957) and eventually made murals himself.
This was at the time the Mexican government began sponsoring artists to adorn public buildings with murals that celebrated the forging of the Mexican nation, beginning with the incursions of the Spanish and culminating in the revolution of 1910. Mobilized by the revolution, the “renaissance” of Mexican art—as it is sometimes described—recognized multiple and diverse artistic traditions and the freedom to develop individual styles, in contrast to the prior adherence to the aesthetic traditions of Europe.[7] The visual arts were incorporated to a striking degree in notions of how to construct a modern nation, a central preoccupation of revolutionary thinking. The ambitious mural program that evolved in Mexico during the 1920s is one expression of this blossoming; printmaking is another.
Jean Charlot, Massacre at the Templo Mayor, 1922–23. Encaustic. Stairway, west court, Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso (Escuela Nacional Preparatoria), Mexico City
Left: María Marín de Orozco (Mexican, 1887–1990), Head of a young woman, ca. 1924, from the portfolio Los pequeños grabadores en madera, alumnos de la Escuela Preparatoria de Jalisco (The young printmakers: students from the preparatory school of Jalisco), 1925. Published in Guadalajara, Mexico. Woodcut and letterpress, 11 13/16 × 9 1/16 in. (30 × 23 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1929 (29.101.19). Right: Gabriel Fernández Ledesma (Mexican, 1900–1983), Poster for an exhibition of student art from nine open-air painting schools in Mexico, 1929. Published by Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, Mexico City. Lithograph of woodcut, 26 9/16 × 18 1/4 in. (67.5 × 46.4 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1931 (31.91.15)
Alongside his work as a muralist, Charlot created woodcuts for books, compilations of poetry, and periodicals. Before he arrived in Mexico, woodcut was not widely practiced by local artists, and it was a medium ignored by the academy. Charlot became the key figure in its efflorescence. In Coyoacán, Charlot began to teach classes on woodcut at the OpenAir Painting School while continuing to produce his own work. Established in villages and towns around Mexico City in the early 1920s, these schools were the result of a government policy to instruct Indigenous and working-class children, and to encourage a unified national culture.[8] Because woodcut did not require arduous or specialized training, it perfectly suited students’ needs. Remarkable prints were created and exhibitions of them organized; they stand as testimonies to the efficacy of the technique and its broad appeal.
Top Left: David Alfaro Siqueiros (Mexican, 1896–1974), Masthead from El Machete, 1924. Woodcut and letterpress, 9 3/16 × 18 5/16 in. (23.3 × 46.5 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1930 (30.14.13). David Alfaro Siqueiros © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City. Bottom Left: Tina Modotti, Worker reading “El Machete,” 1928. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy Galerie Bilderwelt and Reinhard Schultz. Right: David Alfaro Siqueiros, The Trinity of Scoundrels, from Corridos de “El Machete,” by Graciela Amador, 1924. Woodcut and letterpress, 26 7/16 × 17 7/8 in. (67.2 × 45.4 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1930 (30.14.12). David Alfaro Siqueiros - © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City.
Woodcut also became the principal medium for newspaper illustration.The best example to illustrate this point is El Machete, the organ of the Union of Technical Workers, Painters, and Sculptors. It was first published in early 1924, and by November the same year it had become the official paper of the Communist Party. Its executive committee consisted of Rivera, Siqueiros, and Guerrero, who resolved to work collectively and support the popular classes in their struggle. Pioneering the graphic representation of the worker, El Machete was designed as a foldout and gave prominence to bold imagery intimately tied to promoting working-class values. It was aimed at a working-class reader, as styled by Tina Modotti (1896–1942) in several photographs. Printed on thin, cheap paper, El Machete ostensibly was not meant to last, but there is evidence that the artistic quality of the illustrations was valued.
Top Left: Jean Charlot, Rich people in hell, 1924. Woodcut, 13 × 10 5/8 in. (33 × 27 cm). Gift of John Charlot, 1984 (1984.1182.1). Jean Charlot © 2024 The Jean Charlot Estate LLC / Member, Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. With permission. Top Right: Xavier Guerrero (Mexican, 1896–1974), Illustration for “El Machete” concerning agrarian reform, 1924. Woodcut on Japan paper, 16 15/16 × 21 1/4 in. (43 × 54 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.584). Bottom: Jean Charlot, cover and Viaduct, from Urbe: Super-poema bolchevique en 5 cantos, by Manuel Maples Arce, 1924. Published by Andrés Botas e Hijo, Mexico City. Woodcut and letterpress, 9 1/16 × 13 3/8 in. (23.5 × 34 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1931 (31.91.1). Jean Charlot © 2024 The Jean Charlot Estate LLC / Member, Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
New York and The Met
On October 22, 1928, Charlot and his mother departed Mexico for New York. Five days later, they were welcomed by Orozco, who had been in the city since the previous December. Charlot and his mother rented an unheated apartment on the top floor of 42 Union Square.[9] Charlot immersed himself in the art world and continued working as an artist. His art was, however, already familiar to New York audiences. The artist and art historian Walter Pach had shown Charlot’s paintings alongside drawings by Mexican schoolchildren in an exhibition at the Art Center of New York in 1926. As his diaries reveal, Charlot had come to know Pach in Mexico in 1922 and met up with him again in New York.[10] Pach—who lectured regularly at The Met and had close relations with commercial galleries—no doubt introduced Charlot to those he needed to know, which probably included Met staff.[11]
Jean Charlot, The great builders, 1930. Printed by George C. Miller, New York. Lithograph, 15 3/4 × 22 5/8 in. (40 × 57.5 cm). Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932 (32.21.2). Jean Charlot © 2024 The Jean Charlot Estate LLC / Member, Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Soon after arriving in New York, Charlot visited The Met, where he encountered the staff in the Department of Prints (as it was then known): William M. Ivins Jr. was curator, and Alice H. Newlin was assistant. Given Charlot’s experience as a printmaker, combined with the fact that his prints were being published and exhibited in New York, it is not surprising that he gravitated toward the Museum. The first record of Charlot’s direct liaison with Met staff, on May 28, 1929, is recorded in his diary; on this day, he brought his prints to the Print Room and three were acquired.[12] A little later, on June 27, Charlot was delighted to see one of the three, Leopard hunter, on display.[13]
Encouraged by his success in establishing cordial relations, Charlot donated a remarkable group of forty-five prints that he had brought with him from Mexico. The group included eight works by José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913) and Los pequeños grabadores en madera (1925), a portfolio of twenty-six student woodcuts for which Charlot had written a lengthy prologue. The gift also contained seven woodcuts created in early 1924 by Guerrero and Siqueiros with politically motivated and revolutionary subjects for the newspaper El Machete.
Left: Gabriel Fernández Ledesma, Poster advertising an exhibition of work by young Mexican artists held in the Retiro Park, Madrid, 1929. Woodcut and letterpress, 15 15/16 × 11 13/16 in. (40.5 × 30 cm). Gift of Gabriel Fernández Ledesma, 1930 (30.88.1). Right: Gabriel Fernández Ledesma, New York at night, from the portfolio 15 Grabados en madera, 1929. Published by Alfonso Ballesteros, Madrid. Woodcut, 17 5/16 × 13 3/8 in. (44 × 34 cm). Gift of Gabriel Fernández Ledesma, 1930 (30.88.3(16))
Ivins was determined to build a collection that, in addition to works by old masters and modern artists, incorporated an array of printed material that included ephemera. This aspiration was continued by his successor, A. Hyatt Mayor. Their attitudes struck a chord with Charlot, who shared similar values regarding the egalitarian qualities of prints. Encouraged by Ivins, in 1930, Charlot gave some 350 prints in three separate groups, consisting mainly of works by Posada and Manuel Manilla (ca. 1830–1895), followed by those by Siqueiros and Guerrero, that he had acquired in Mexico during the 1920s.[14]
Mexico in New York
While the expansion of the print collection at The Met was due to Ivins’s encouragement and Charlot’s knowledge and friendships, it also very much reflected the interest in Mexican culture in the United States during the 1920s and what has been described as an “invasion” of Mexican art.[15] The interest was powered by strong cultural and commercial relations between the two countries.
The prevalence of Mexican art, especially by living artists, in the New York art world in particular testifies to the fascination with all things Mexican in the United States. From the mid-1920s, for example, the Weyhe Gallery arranged exhibitions and published prints by Orozco, Rivera, and Siqueiros, among others, and was involved in Mexico well into the 1930s. Its owner Erhard Weyhe and gallery director Carl Zigrosser gifted and sold Mexican prints to The Met during this time, further proof of the Museum’s receptiveness to expanding its holdings of this material. Indeed, Weyhe and Zigrosser sold possibly the best-known Mexican print to the Museum—Rivera’s lithograph of the revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata, after the artist’s mural in the Palace of Cortés in Cuernavaca.
Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957), Emiliano Zapata and his horse, 1932. Printed by George C. Miller, New York. Published by Weyhe Gallery, New York. Lithograph, 21 × 15 9/16 in. (53.4 × 39.5 cm). Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933 (33.26.7). Diego Rivera © 2024 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Two exhibitions held at The Met in 1930 represent a turning point for the institution, introducing hitherto unseen material and embellishing public perceptions of Mexican art: a large loan exhibition of around 1,300 objects, Mexican Arts (October 13–November 9), funded by the Carnegie Foundation and organized by the American Federation of Arts, and a smaller exhibition of prints (October 12–November 9). This was the first time The Met displayed Mexican material in such abundance. The impetus for the main exhibition was political, insofar that the organizers wanted to present a positive view of Mexico after the revolution to appease relations between the two countries. Showcasing fine, decorative, and applied arts, Mexican Arts ultimately traveled to thirteen other venues—twice as many as originally planned. The exhibition included prints, books, periodicals, and children’s drawings that, in the catalogue, are collectively regarded as expressive of the cultural efflorescence nurtured by the revolution. There was also a large group of drawings, prints, and paintings by twentieth-century artists, including Charlot, and copies of periodicals he edited and to which he contributed.
Left: Diego Rivera, The equal distribution of land, ca. 1922. Woodcut, 10 3/4 × 7 1/2 in. (27.3 ×19.1 cm). Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library, Honolulu, Gift of a Charlot Family Member, 2002 (2002.504.38). Diego Rivera © 2024 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Middle: Jean Charlot with Frances Flynn Paine in New York City, 1931. Photograph, 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm). Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library, Honolulu, Founding Collection Gift of Zohmah Charlot. Right: Mauricio (likely Mexican, active 1920s), A young man carrying a cage on his back, ca. 1920–28. Woodcut, 8 1/8 × 5 3/8 in. (20.6 × 13.7 cm). Gift of Frances Flynn Paine, 1930 (30.91.1)
The colossal success of Mexican Arts provided perfect complements to the modest print exhibition that ran concurrently. In a brief note in the October 1930 issue of the Bulletin, Alice Newlin points out that the works were mainly from The Met collection and highlights the importance of Posada and prints by “second generation” Mexican artists, such as Orozco and Rufino Tamayo (1899–1991). She goes on to identify specific works, for example “the fiery woodcuts of David Alfaro Siqueiros and Xavier Guerrero, issued in the labor paper, El Machete.”[16] Charlot’s prints were also included, and Newlin stresses how important Maya archaeological excavations were for his art. From the outset, Charlot was closely involved with the exhibition. He helped Newlin with the note for the Bulletin and lent seventeen works from his own collection: three Siqueiros prints for El Machete and seven works each by Manilla and Posada.
Left: Rufino Tamayo (Mexican, 1899–1991), The revolutionist, ca. 1929–30. Woodcut, 12 × 9 7/16 in. (30.5 × 24 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1931 (31.91.33). Rufino Tamayo © 2024 Tamayo Heirs / Mexico / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.Right: David Alfaro Siqueiros, cover for the portfolio 13 Grabados, 1930. Woodcut, 9 13/16 × 6 7/8 in. (25 × 17.5 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1931 (31.91.3(1)). Diego Rivera © 2024 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The exhibition galvanized Charlot’s continued support for the Department of Prints. On October 19, 1931, the Museum trustees accepted his most important gift to date—forty-three prints, eight posters, and five books/portfolios by leading artists, among them, Alfredo Zalce (1908–2003), Rufino Tamayo, Emilio Amero, Carlos Mérida (1891–1984), and Leopoldo Méndez (1902–1969). The expanding roster of artists and range of different types of materials reflected in the gift are notable. One highlight is a portfolio of thirteen woodcuts that Siqueiros carved on scraps of wood while in Mexico City’s penitentiary after being arrested for his association with the Communist Party. Upon his release, he was forced into exile in Taxco (southwest of Mexico City), where he collated the woodcuts into a portfolio.
Left: Gabriel Fernández Ledesma, Poster for an exhibition of photographs by Agustín Jiménez, ca. 1929–31. Lithograph of woodcut, 36 5/8 × 26 9/16 in. (93 × 67.5 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1931 (31.91.14). Right: Carlos Orozco Romero (Mexican, 1896–1984), Poster warning of the dangers of fetal alcohol syndrome, ca. 1928–30. Published by Talleres Gráficos de México, Mexico City. Lithograph of woodcut, 37 × 26 9/16 in. (94 × 67.5 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1931 (31.91.10)
As part of the gift, The Met also acquired a group of remarkably rare posters, with one by Fernández Ledesma advertising an exhibition of photographs by Agustín Jiménez (1901–1974) and another by Carlos Orozco Romero (1896–1984) warning of the dangers of fetal alcohol syndrome. During the early 1930s, Charlot was also advising The Met on acquisitions. In a letter to Ivins, Charlot presents (1904–1983) as “an American painter much identified with Mexico” and describes a proof of a lithographic self-portrait by Rivera that he had obtained from the artist himself.[17] Ivins later agreed to acquire the Rivera work.
Left: Carlos Mérida (Guatemalan, 1891–1984), Abstract composition, from the portfolio Motivos, 1936. Published by Ediciones Arte Mexicano, Mexico City. Woodcut, 8 15/16 × 6 5/16 in. (22.7 × 16 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1938 (38.72.7). Carlos Merida © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City. Middle: Cover for Libro de lectura para uso de las escuelas nocturnas para trabajadores. Primer grado (Reading primer for workers who attend night school. First grade), 1938. Published by Editora Popular de la Secretaría de Educación Pública, Mexico City. Lithograph of linocut and letterpress, 8 3/4 × 6 5/16 in. (22.2 × 16 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1939 (39.16.27). Right: Ángel Bracho (Mexican, 1911– 2005), Manifesto of the town of Soconusco, 1938. Probably published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Linocut and letterpress, 17 1/8 × 11 13/16 in. (43.5 × 30 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1939 (39.16.11). Angel Bracho © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City
Returning to New York in late 1931, Charlot continued teaching at the Art Students League. Two years later, he began working at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, before heading back to New York in 1934. Charlot’s Picture Book of mainly Mexican themes was published in an edition of five hundred in 1933, and The Met purchased a copy; he also presented four volumes of progressive proofs for the book to the Museum. In 1933, five of his works were included in the MoMA exhibition American Sources of Modern Art, which explored art of the ancient Americas and its contemporary resonances. In March 1936, an exhibition of Charlot’s work was held at Columbia University, where he delivered a series of lectures a year later. During this time, Charlot maintained close relations with Met curators through regular correspondence and gifts.[18] Charlot’s attachment to Mexico largely defined his artistic credentials, and at The Met, his work has always been filed in the Mexican section. Incoming gifts from Charlot included miscellaneous items, such as a copy of André Salmon’s Le calumet (1920) with woodcuts by André Derain, a catalogue of Charlot’s prints (1936) with pictograph-like lithographic illustrations printed by Albert Carman (formerly printer in residence at The Met), and Carlos Mérida’s portfolio of surrealist inspired abstract lithographs titled Motivos.
Meanwhile, interest in Mexican culture in the United States continued unabated. The exhibition Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art, held at MoMA in 1940 (May 15–September 30), displayed an enormous number of ancient, colonial, folk, and modern objects; the works filled the entire gallery space and continued into the courtyard with pre-Columbian stone sculpture. Charlot’s color lithograph Mother and Child (1934) was included in the modern section. The roster of Charlot’s artistic and academic activities during the late 1930s and 1940s demonstrates how embedded he had become in the cultural life of the city.
A lidded wooden case containing the display “Color Lithography—Tortilla makers—by Jean Charlot” for a traveling exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1941. Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library, Honolulu, Gift of Miss Elizabeth Fuller, 2006 (2006.504.1).
Charlot’s reputation was sufficiently established for him to accept offers of work beyond New York, and in 1941 he took a teaching position at the University of Georgia, where in 1943 he became artist in residence. This was followed by a period teaching at Black Mountain College in the summer of 1944, and that fall he was artist in residence at Smith College. Despite his peripatetic existence, Charlot continued to send material to The Met; one notable gift was Mérida’s portfolio Estampas del Popol-Vuh (1943).Printmaking at the Vanguard
By the early 1930s the appeal of muralism had cooled broadly due to the fact that it was seen as representative of a revolutionary government that had revealed its many failings. The Mexican writer Octavio Paz described it as “the painted apologia of the ideological dictatorship of an armed bureaucracy.”[19] Artists like Charlot and Orozco, who diverted their attention from murals to explore printmaking, were followed by a slightly younger generation that included figures such as Méndez and Francisco Dosamantes (1911–1986). Printmaking became the dominant conduit for addressing political and social concerns, a reality reflected in the establishment of artists’ collectives committed to promoting social action. These developments should be viewed against the backdrop of the educational programs supported by the National Revolutionary Party (founded in 1929), implemented through broadcasts, the social missions for campesinos, and other similar initiatives that reflected revolutionary ideology.
Leopoldo Méndez (Mexican, 1902–1969), Calaveras symphony concert, 1934. Wood engraving, 9 5/8 × 7 7/8 in. (24.5 × 20 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.36).
The Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR; League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists) was founded in late 1933 with close ties to Mexico’s Communist Party. Counted in its membership were Méndez, Luis Arenal (1907–1985), José Chávez Morado (1909–2002), Guerrero, O’Higgins, Antonio Pujol (1913– 1995), and Everardo Ramírez (1906–1992). Reflecting the progressive policies of President Lázaro Cárdenas, the LEAR supported anticapitalist and anti-imperialist struggles that were voiced through its magazine Frente a Frente. Méndez created a print for the cover of its first issue in November 1934. As a cultural force that had considerable influence on education in Mexico, the LEAR sent exhibitions across the country, organized lectures and meetings, and established schools for workers.
Everardo Ramírez (Mexican, 1906–1992), Ignacio Aguirre (Mexican, 1900–1990), and Alfredo Zalce (Mexican, 1908–2003), Poster addressing union demands for graphic art workers employed by commercial workshops, ca. 1940–42. Published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Lithograph of linocut and woodcut, 26 3/8 × 35 5/8 (67 × 90.5 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.489)
One notable project was a series of textbooks illustrated by LEAR artists to teach literacy to workers taking night classes. By 1937, internal differences and political tensions had resulted in its demise, and in its wake came the Taller Editorial de Gráfica Popular (TEGP), founded in spring 1937 by such artists as Arenal, Raúl Anguiano (1915–2006), O’Higgins, and Zalce, some of whom had been members of the LEAR. In the following year, led by Méndez, the TEGP became the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP; Workshop of Popular Graphic Art), the longest lasting artists’ collective. For its activism and political intrigue, as well as the number of artists involved, it is one of the most fascinating groups in the history of twentieth-century printmaking. Indeed, the TGP developed into an immensely productive organization that exerted influence on an international level. Its statutes state that it was “founded with the aim of stimulating graphic arts production in the interests of the Mexican people, and to this end seeks to bring together the greatest number of artists in a task of constant self improvement through collective production.”[20] Drawing on the tradition of Posada’s illustrated broadsheets and the bold graphics of El Machete, the TGP produced material that supported trade unionism, agrarian rights, politics, and especially socialist education.
Left: Ángel Bracho, Poster celebrating the Allied victory over the Nazis at the end of World War II, 1945. Published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Lithograph of linocut, 31 1/2 × 23 1/4 in. (80 × 59 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.507). Angel Bracho © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City. Middle: Raúl Anguiano (Mexican, 1915–2006), Poster to raise funds in support of the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War, 1938. Published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Lithograph, 25 3/16 × 19 1/2 in. (64 × 49.5 cm). Gift of Jean Charlot, 1940 (40.47.8). Right: Attributed to Francisco Díaz de León (Mexican, 1897– 1975), Poster advertising a free night course to learn printmaking and bookbinding, 1937–39. Lithograph of woodcut, 37 3/16 × 27 15/16 in. (94.5 × 71 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.334)
Posters were among the most striking materials created during this period. Many examples relate to the struggle against fascism and the suffering brought on by the Spanish Civil War, both of which resulted in refugees arriving in Mexico. Other posters sponsored by the Departamento Autónomo de Prensa y Publicidad (DAPP; Department of Press and Propaganda) advertised exhibitions and free night courses in printmaking and bookbinding.[21]
Left: Pablo Esteban O’Higgins (American, 1904–1983), Poster relating to the Soviet Front, 1941. Published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Lithograph, 18 1/2 × 26 3/8 in. (47 × 67 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.510). Pablo O’Higgins © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City. Right: Josefina Vollmer (likely Mexican, active 1940s), A corner on Avenida 5 de Mayo, Mexico City, winter 1942–43, page 6 from TGP México. El Taller de Gráfica Popular. Doce años de obra artística colectiva (TGP Mexico. Workshop of Popular Graphic Art. Twelve years of collective artistic work), edited by Hannes Meyer, 1949. Published by La Estampa Mexicana, Mexico City. Administrative Fund, 1987 (1987.1079)
Like El Machete ten years earlier, these posters were pasted in the streets and other public places. Writing about an exhibition he curated in 1936 for the LEAR, Fernández Ledesma eloquently describes the efficacy of posters: “The poster is the theater, the mural decoration and the book that cannot wait to be visited: it goes out into the street, and from the wall shouts its message to the passersby. The voice of a good poster is always heard.”[22]
Left: Leopoldo Méndez, Ballad of Mr. Grasshopper who exploits starving workers, ca. 1940. Published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Zincograph and letterpress, 13 3/8 × 9 1/4 in. (34 × 23.5 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.460). Middle: Attributed to Alfredo Zalce, Poster relating to the expropriation of foreign oil interests, ca. 1938. Printed by Cooperativa de Artes Gráficas, Mexico City. Lithograph of linocut, 36 7/16 × 26 3/8 in. (92.5 × 67 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.491). Alfredo Zalce © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City. Left: Leopoldo Méndez, Juan Martínez Escobar murdered in June 1938 in Acámbaro (Guanajuato) in the presence of his students, from the portfolio En nombre de Cristo (In the name of Christ), 1939. Published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Lithograph, 13 3/4 × 9 7/16 in. (35 × 24 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.69(2))
Flyers, books, and portfolios of prints were also created by the TGP. Printed on cheap paper and intended for distribution in the street and at events, posters and flyers addressed such issues as the oppression of workers and exploitative foreign intervention. Charlot knew many of the TGP members, and he acquired their prints while he was based in the United States. One of Charlot’s gifts from 1940—a portfolio of seven lithographs by Méndez that depict murdered schoolteachers in rural Mexico—exemplifies the range of subjects and formats addressed by TGP artists.
Return to Mexico
Alfredo Zalce, The Palisada River, 1945, from the portfolio Estampas de Yucatán, 1946. Printed by José Sánchez. Published by Taller de Gráfica Popular (La Estampa Mexicana), Mexico City. Lithograph, 15 3/16 × 17 1/2 in. (38.5 × 44.5 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.453(1)). Alfredo Zalce © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City
In early 1945, Charlot received a major break in the form of a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship to research and write the manuscript that became The Mexican Mural Renaissance, 1920–1925 (1963). The fellowship enabled him to return to Mexico, where he remained with his family until the summer of 1947. In April 1945, Carlos Mérida wrote to Charlot, noting that his return was greatly anticipated and would be celebrated by all of his friends. Back in familiar territory, Charlot renewed friendships with artists and kindled new ones, spending time with Mérida, Zalce, Federico Cantú (1908–1989), and O’Higgins. He also used the facilities at the TGP to print, for example, lithographs for Mexihkanantli (Nahuatl for “Mexican mother”), the progressive proofs for which made their way to The Met.
Left: Gonzalo de la Paz Pérez (Mexican, 1909–2001), War, 1940, from El libro negro del terror Nazi en Europa (The Black Book of Nazi Terror in Europe), 1943. Lithograph and letterpress, 81 1/16 × 61 1/16 in. (22 × 17 cm). A. Hyatt Mayor Purchase, Marjorie Phelps Starr Bequest, 2022 (2022.356). Right: Carlos Mérida, A man from Saltillo in the state of Coahuila, plate 2 from the portfolio Trajes regionales mexicanos (Regional Mexican dress), 1945. Carlos Merida © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City
In April 1945, before setting out, Charlot wrote to Mayor suggesting that The Met provide him with a “buying allowance to get on the spot whatever I think would be an addition to the Print collection.”[23] Mayor passed the letter to Ivins with an annotation explaining that Charlot “might well get us excellent things that would be impossible to come by otherwise”—a clear endorsement of the trust they had established during the previous decade. The recommendation set in motion a sequence of events that culminated in a significant group of Mexican prints and books coming to The Met, thereby creating one of the most comprehensive museum collections of this material in the world.
Left: Alfredo Zalce, Spirit of the underworld, from El sombrerón, by Bernardo Ortiz de Montellano, 1946. Published by Editorial La Estampa Mexicana, Mexico City. Pen and ink, hand-colored trial proof, published state with letterpress, 11 1/2 × 8 1/2 in. (29.2 × 21.6 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.538). Alfredo Zalce © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City. Right: Jean Charlot, Blas Vanegas Arroyo, and an assistant in Mexico City printing the cover of “100 Woodcuts by Posada,” 1947. Photograph, 4 1/2 × 6 3/4 in. (11.4 × 17.1 cm). Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library, Honolulu, Founding Collection Gift of Zohmah Charlot.
Relishing the opportunity to acquire work and confident in the knowledge that The Met supported his judgment, Charlot immediately set to his task. The works of art purchased by Charlot caused great excitement upon their arrival at the Museum. Mayor identified individual pieces of merit: the 1756 engraving on silk and a copy of poet Bernardo Ortiz de Montellano’s El sombrerón (1946) with the original drawings and hand-colored proof impressions of prints interleaved. In late February 1947, Charlot wrote to Mayor announcing that he had spent almost all the money and would soon return to the United States. In June, Charlot and his family traveled to California, and in September, he began a brief tenure as director of Colorado Springs Arts Center. That same year, he was also guest curator at the Brooklyn Museum, selecting one hundred prints for American Printmaking, 1913–1947: A Retrospective Exhibition (November 18–December 16).
Mexican Prints at The Met
Francisco Dosamantes, Mexican (1911–1986). Poster for an exhibition of TGP lithographs in the art gallery of the National University, Mexico City, 1939. Lithograph in black and red backed on linen, 17 1/8 × 23 7/16 in. (43.5 × 59.5 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.511)
The influx of almost nine hundred items in 1946 transformed the Museum’s collection. The range and quality of material are remarkable, amounting to an unequaled representation of Mexican printmaking from the eighteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. The greatest concentration of work is from the twentieth century, clearly reflecting what was available: broadsides illustrating notable events; popular prints, some with satirical content; political and advertising posters, many of which promote educational courses and exhibitions; print portfolios; children’s and other books; song sheets; devotional images; and symbolist works. Much of the art, including large and potentially fragile posters and newspapers, survives in pristine condition because it came directly from artists and workshops instead of through intermediaries.
Left: Julio Ruelas (Mexican, 1870–1907), The critic, ca. 1905–7. Etching, 11 7/16 × 81 1/16 in. (29 × 22 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.597). Middle: Pablo Esteban O’Higgins, Calaveras locas por la música (Skeletons crazy about music), 1938. Published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Lithograph, 18 1/2 × 26 9/16 in. (47 × 67.5 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.341(1)). Pablo O’Higgins © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City. Right: Alfredo Zalce, Flyer relating to the expropriation of foreign oil interests, ca. 1938. Published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City. Lithograph, 13 9/16 × 8 7/8 in. (34.5 × 22.5 cm). The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946 (46.46.461). Alfredo Zalce © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City
A different buyer might have focused on “fine art” prints by well-known artists (Rivera or Orozco, for example), or the vibrant posters published by the TGP. Charlot’s acquisitions, however, went beyond this material and included more obscure work that conveyed a comprehensive history of printmaking in Mexico. Some of the images directly criticized American foreign policy that resulted in unwanted intervention and the expropriation of Mexico’s natural resources. The incorporation of these prints into The Met collection reflects a notable legacy of egalitarian collecting practices and Charlot’s passion for Mexico and its art, his generosity as a donor, and his role as an indefatigable agent and negotiator.
This essay is adapted from the summer 2024 Bulletin, which accompanies the exhibition Mexican Prints at the Vanguard on view through January 5, 2025
Notes
[1] Lyle W. Williams, “Evolution of a Revolution. A Brief History of Printmaking in Mexico,” in Mexico and Modern Printmaking. A Revolution in the Graphic Arts, 1920 to 1950, ed. John Ittmann, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 1–6;
W. Michael Mathes, La ilustración en México colonial / Illustration in Colonial Mexico (Zapopán, Jalisco: El Colegio de Jalisco, 2001).
[2] Jean Charlot, Mexican Art and the Academy of SanCarlos, 1785–1915 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962), pp. 22–25; Miguel Mathes, “La litografía y los litógrafos en México, 1826–1900: un resumen histórico,” in Nacióndeimágenes.Lalitograf íamexicana del siglo XIX, exh. cat. (Mexico City: Museo Nacional de Arte; Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1994), pp. 43–55.
[3] Casimiro Castro y su taller, exh. cat. (Mexico City: Palacio de Iturbide; Toluca: Museos José María Velasco y Felipe S. Gutiérrez, 1996); María Esther Pérez Salas, Costumbrismo y litografía en México: un nuevo modo de ver (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 2005).
[4] As described by Siqueiros in the manifesto he drew up in 1922 for the Union of Technical Workers, Painters, and Sculptors. Smith, Power and Politics, pp. 31–32; Tatiana Flores, Mexico’s Revolutionary Avant-Gardes: From Estridentismo to ¡30-30! (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), pp. 167–76.
[5] The two most important resources relating to Charlot are the Jean Charlot Foundation website (https://www.jeancharlot.org), developed by his son John P. Charlot, and the Jean Charlot Collection at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library, Honolulu (hereafter cited as JCC), which houses his collections, documents, and diaries (kept daily from 1922 to 1979 [1945 missing]) (hereafter cited as Diary). The diaries can be accessed at https://scholarspace.manoa .hawaii.edu/collections/87aef7af82c44f6c 8b3ae7e022c89742). Charlot’s essays have been republished in An Artist on Art. Collected Essays of Jean Charlot, 2 vols. (Honolulu: University Press of Hawai‘i, 1972). Janine M. Richardson has compiled a complete bibliography of his writings, see Writings by Jean Charlot. A Bibliography (Honolulu: Jean Charlot Foundation, 2014).
[6] Jean Charlot, The Mexican Mural Renaissance 1920–1925 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963), pp. 9–10; José Luis Martínez H., “Jean Charlot y la colección Boturini-Aubin-Goupil,” in México en la obra de Jean Charlot, pp. 38–43.
[7] Charlot, Mural Renaissance; Flores, Revolutionary Avant-Gardes, pp. 55–56.
[8] 19. John Ittmann, “Open Air Schools and Early Print Workshops,” in Ittmann, Mexico and Modern Printmaking, pp. 90–94; Deborah Caplow, Leopoldo Méndez: Revolutionary Art and the Mexican Print (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007), pp. 18–21; Lear, Picturing the Proletariat, pp. 132–36.
[9] Jean Charlot, foreword to The Artist in New York. Letters to Jean Charlot and Unpublished Writings (1925–1929), by José Clemente Orozco, trans. Ruth L. C. Simms (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974),
pp. 20, 22.
[10] For Charlot and Pach, see, for example, November 3 and 19, 1928, Diary; McCarthy, Walter Pach, pp. 133–34.
[11] For Charlot, Mayor, and Pach in Print Room, see May 28, 1929, Diary. See also record of Pach in New York in Orozco’s letters to Charlot in Artist in New York, pp. 14, 28, 45.
[12] Archival material at The Met relating to Charlot can be found in two places: gift and purchase documentation, as well as correspondence between Charlot and Met curators, are held in the Department of Drawings and Prints (hereafter cited as DP); and invoices relating to gifts, loans, and exhibitions are held in the Office of the Secretary Records, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives (hereafter cited as Archives).
[13] MMA 29.66.3; June 27, 1929, Diary. Charlot returned to The Met on June 29 and 30.
[14] Gifts in 1930: January 15 (fifteen prints, MMA 30.14.1–.15; no. 549, DP; accepted February 17, Archives); April 9 (one book and set of proofs for the book, MMA 30.33(1–88); no. 580, DP; accepted April 21, Archives); June 14 (253 prints, MMA 30.82.1–.251; no. 596, DP; accepted October 20, Archives).
[15] See Delpar, Enormous Vogue; IndychLópez, Muralism without Walls, pp. 1–11.
[16] Alice Newlin, “Mexican Prints on View,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 25, no. 10 (October 1930), p. 225.
[17] See MMA 31.44; undated letter, DP.
[18] For example, Charlot visited The Met on August 7, 1936, to look at a large group of drawings by Goya that the Museum had recently acquired, Diary.
[19] Benjamin, La Revolución, p. 75; Mary K. Coffey, How a Revolutionary Art Became Official Culture: Murals, Museums, and the Mexican State (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012).
[20] Francisco Reyes Palma, “Utopías del desencanto / Utopias of Disenchantment,” in Gritos desde el archivo. Grabado político del Taller de Gráfica Popular, Colección Academia de Artes / Shouts from the Archive. Political Prints from the Taller de Gráfica Popular, The Academia de Artes Collection, ed. Pilar García de Germenos and James Oles, exh. cat. (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2008), p. 24.
[21] Dafne Cruz Porchini, Arte, propaganda y diplomacia cultural a finales del cardenismo, 1937–1940 (Mexico City: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Dirección General del Acervo Histórico Diplomático, 2016), pp. 69–84.
[22] Fernández Ledesma, “Exposition de propaganda tipográfica,” Frente a Frente, July 1936, p. 22. Lear,Picturing the Proletariat, p. 191.
[23] Charlot to Mayor, April 27, 1945, DP. In his reply, Mayor thanked Charlot for the suggestion, see Mayor to Charlot, April 28, 1945, Met correspondence file, JCC.
