13 Works That Evoke Mexican Printmaking

Drawing on a rich museum collection and an even richer history, “Mexican Prints at the Vanguard” at The Met deftly explores the medium of printmaking in Mexico. From screenprints and woodcuts to lithographs, the country’s printmaking tradition—the exhibition focuses on works from the 18th to mid-20th centuries, many of them donated by French-Mexican artist Jean Charlot—has played a vital role in addressing political and social concerns.

José Guadalupe Posada’s relief prints depict skeletons, calaveras and skulls, often imbued with political messages like the 1913 La Calavera Catrina. The prints would go on to have a major influence on the Mexican art scene at home and abroad. Communist muralist Diego Rivera would repurpose the image, a gaunt woman wearing a large feathered hat, originally to mock upper-class women for their European attire. Reclaiming her image through the illustrious symbols of indigenous culture, he incorporated La Catrina in the 1947 mural Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central Park).

“Every artist of value in art is such a propagandist,” Rivera said. “I wanted to be a propagandist and I didn’t want to be anything else. I wanted to use my art as a weapon.” Fellow muralist José Clemente Orozco—with whom Rivera spearheaded the Mexican Mural Movement—depicted the lives of workers and human suffering, but from a less realistic perspective and with more attention to machinery, tying the physical machines of capitalism into fantastical scenes. He painted murals from Guadalajara to Hanover and New York City.

Whether it was the texture of the fresco or the lasting imprint of the calaveras, artists of this era cemented the importance of Mexican art on a global scale, one that continues to thrive today. Here, a foray into the worlds of pattern and motif.

“Mexican Prints at the Vanguard” is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 12 to January 5, 2025.

Items selected by Nicole Chapoteau, Samantha Gasmer, Kia D. Goosby, Jessica Neises, Pope MilesAnd Daisy Shaw-Ellis.