The Popular Graphics Workshop is an artists’ print making collective founded in Mexico in 1937 by Leopoldo Mendez, Pablo O’Higgins, and Luis Arenal. The workshop also functioned as a workers’ organisation, primarily concerned with using art to support anti-militarism, organised labour, opposition to fascism, and promote the ideals of the Mexican revolution, and aligning themselves with the artistic and political legacy of Jose Guadalupe Posada’s work. The TGP had its own editorial, La Estampa Mexicana, which allowed them to release and sell their own publications, engraving portfolios, and books. Under the direction of architect and urban planner Hannes Meyer and layout design of Lena Bergner, the TGP launched their first collective editorial project in 1947. Estampas de la Revolución mejicana (Prints of the Mexican Revolution) consisted on a portfolio of 85 loose prints by 16 artists.
Image: Ignacio Aguirre (Mexico, 1900-1990), El pueblo es soberano (Power to the people) from ‘Estampas de la Revolución mejicana’, linocut. Purchased by the University of Essex, acquisition mediated by Professor Dawn Ades. Donated to ESCALA (Essex Collection of Art from Latin America) by the School of Philosophy and Art History, University of Essex in 2001.
