Fernando Castro Pacheco, Las demandas del pueblo y la amenaza de la reacción / The Demands of the People and the Threat of the Reactionaries, linocut, 10 ½ x 16 in., BMoA Permanent Collection 2012.03.12.76; Gift of the Clark Foundation for Mexican Folk Art
Estampas Collection
Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana is a series of 84 linoleum block prints donated to the Bakersfield Museum of Art by the Clark Foundation for Mexican Folk Art in 2012. The 11” x 16” prints were created by over a dozen artists working in the mid-20th century.
The 84 linoleum block prints portray important episodes of the Mexican Revolution by 16 artists from the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop or TGP).
A Traveling Exhibition
The Estampas Collection tells powerful stories from a unique perspective, stories that leverage art as a means of social change. The collection provides a view of the world through a cultural lens. As countless exhibitions from underrepresented artists have shown, viewing the world from another perspective empowers both artist and viewer.
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Founded in 1937 by artists Leopoldo Mendez, Pablo O’Higgins, and Luis Arenal, Taller was a vibrant collective of established and emerging artists committed to the direct use of visual art in the service of social change. Their subject matter often included land reform, progressive political candidates, the anti-war movement, solidarity with foreign struggles, folk life, labor unions, Mexican revolution history and heroes, and other progressive causes.
Many artists in Taller had fought in the revolution and their ideals are strongly imbued in these powerful prints. Fame was not an objective for the Taller artists. Instead, they valued the collective process and were primarily focused on educating the masses about the struggles and triumphs surrounding the Mexican Revolution.
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Linocut printmaking — a relief process that involves cutting into linoleum, applying paint to the surface, and laying paper on top to reveal a print— dates back to the 1880s. By the time TGP was formed, linocut printmaking had been embraced by popular 20th-century artists including Vasily Kandinsky and Josef Albers. Over the years, the process has become a cost-effective, favorite medium for artists.
There is a rich history of people worldwide using inexpensive and even found materials to create art. Artists from every walk of life can take up this art form and tell their own unique stories, adding to the human experience for us all.
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The 84 Estsampas prints are currently stored in dust-free preservation boxes with acid-free paper in between each print. To prepare the print for exhibition, each print requires conservation-grade framing.
Financial support will give BMoA the means to preserve each print individually so that their history can be shared.
To support our conservation of the Estampas Collection, click the donate button or contact Victor Gonzales, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, at vgonzales@bmoa.org.