Taller de Gráfica Popular

Taller de Gráfica Popular
Years active1937–present
LocationMexico
Major figures
Influenced

The Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP, transl. People's Graphic Workshop) is an artists' print collective founded in Mexico in 1937 by artists Leopoldo Méndez,[1] Pablo O'Higgins, and Luis Arenal. The collective was primarily concerned with using art to advance revolutionary social causes. The print shop became a base of political activity and abundant artistic output, and attracted many foreign artists as collaborators.[2]

Foundation

The workshop was founded in 1937 following the dissolution of the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios.

Initially called the Taller Editorial de Gráfica Popular, its founders built upon a rich tradition of printmaking in Mexico, particularly the legacy of José Guadalupe Posada and Manuel Manilla.

Under President Lázaro Cárdenas, the work of the Taller supported the government's policies, including the nationalisation of oil.

In 1940, muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros launched an armed assault on the residence of exiled Russian Revolutionary Leon Trotsky, using the Taller's print shop as a headquarters and including some artists affiliated with the Taller in his squad.[3]

There was some collaboration between the TGP and the artists of the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration, including Rafael Tufiño.

Artists from outside Mexico came to work and study at the Taller, including Mariana Yampolsky, the first female member of the Taller, who arrived in 1945[4] and remained until 1960[5], and Elizabeth Catlett, who worked with the Taller from 1946[6] to 1966[7]. Both took Mexican citizenship.[8] During the Civil Rights Movement, Chicano and African American artists produced work at the Taller. The collective became an 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.[9][10]

The TGP faced financial instability and had to relocate several times, but Jesús Álvarez Amaya kept it running until his death in 2010.

Work

During its heyday, the Taller specialized in linoleum prints and woodcuts. It produced posters, handbills, banners, and portfolio editions.[11] The art supported causes such as anti-militarism, organized labor, and opposition to fascism.

The art was often made through the collaborative process, and the Taller took the anti-commercial policy of not numbering prints, but it did sell prints and was the first political publishing workshop in Mexico to do so.[12]

Under the brand La Estampa Mexicana, the TGP sold song lyrics, posters of heroes, Mexican culture, and Left movements worldwide. It also gave rise to a new generation of Calaveras, the Mexican tradition of humorous poetry ridiculing politicians and other popular figures. The raised fist[13] emerged as a graphic symbol of resistance and unity.

It is still working on art and social issues and is located at Dr. Manuel Villada 46, Colonia Doctores, Mexico City.[3][14]

Decline

The TGP declined from the 1960s amid political repression, internal divisions, and shifting artistic priorities. In 1960, David Alfaro Siqueiros was arrested and accused of social dissolution. The Movimiento de Liberación Nacional (MLN), founded in 1961 with the backing of former president Cárdenas, introduced new political alignments that divided the membership. Artists including Francisco Mora, Xavier Guerrero, Elizabeth Catlett, Alberto Beltrán, and María Luisa Martín departed the collective.

Legacy

The TGP's influence extended beyond Mexico, informing Chicano and African American printmaking in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Although collective projects and political posters became less frequent, the TGP continued producing Las Calaveras, prints reflecting on political, social, and economic events.[15] In the late 1990s, the government of the Mexican Federal District granted the collective a building under the direction of Alvarez Amaya. The TGP's model of collective political printmaking experienced renewal in 21st-century Oaxaca, where groups including ASARO, Colectivo Subterráneos, and Lapiztola employ relief printing and democratic assembly structures to address contemporary issues such as indigenous rights and state violence.[16][17][18]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Caplow, Deborah (2007). Leopoldo Méndez: Revolutionary Art and the Mexican Print. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  2. ↑ Prignitz, Helga (1992). El Taller de Gráfica Popular en México 1937–1977. Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. ISBN 978-968-29-3354-7. LCCN 94139393.
  3. 1 2 McCloskey, Kevin (April 2009). "TGP: A Mexico City Pilgrimage". CommonSense2: A Journal of Progressive Thought. Archived from the original on 8 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
  4. ↑ Herzog 2000, p. 81.
  5. ↑ Herzog 2000, p. 111.
  6. ↑ Herzog 2000, pp. 56–57.
  7. ↑ Herzog 2000, p. 112.
  8. ↑ Herzog 2000, p. 79.
  9. ↑ Makin, Jean, ed. (1999). Codex Mendez. Tempe: Arizona State University. See also Prignitz, Helga (1992). El Taller de Gráfica Popular en México 1937–1977. Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes.
  10. ↑ Vogel, Susan (2010). Becoming Pablo O'Higgins. San Francisco/Salt Lake City: Pince-Nez Press.
  11. ↑ Cushing, Lincoln. "Taller de Gráfica Popular". docspopuli.org. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
  12. ↑ Ricker, Michael T. "El Taller de Gráfica Popular". Graphic Witness. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
  13. ↑ "Mexican posters on social and educational themes". docspopuli.org.
  14. ↑ "Taller de Gráfica Popular". Sistema de Información Cultural (in Spanish).
  15. ↑ "Print and Struggle: Eighty Years of the Taller de Gráfica Popular, 1937–2017". Issuu. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  16. ↑ Graham de La Rosa, Michael; Gilbert, Samuel (26 March 2017). "Oaxaca's Revolutionary Street Art". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 25 October 2025.
  17. ↑ "Oaxaca Ingobernable: Aesthetics, Politics, and Art from Below". Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. University of New Mexico. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  18. ↑ "Greenleaf Scholar to Present on Visualizing Collectivity in Oaxaca". Latin American & Iberian Institute. University of New Mexico. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2025.

Works cited

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