Unity, CTM

Leopoldo MéndezWW-1933-043663

1933·Lithograph in black and red (recto) and lithograph in black (verso) on cream wove paper·Image: 29.4 × 47.4 cm (11 5/8 × 18 11/16 in.); Sheet: 32.6 × 50.6 cm (12 7/8 × 19 15/16 in.)

This image, which illustrates a Taller de Gráfica Popular advertising brochure, was initially used on a 1937 poster, the Taller’s first such commission, celebrating the founding of the powerful Mexican labor federation the Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM). It emphasizes not only workers’ role in disseminating “graphic propaganda,” but the ability of the print medium itself to promote solidarity around leftist causes. Español: Esta imagen, que ilustra un folleto publicitario del Taller de Gráfica Popular, fue inicialmente utilizada en un cartel de 1937 que celebraba la fundación de la poderosa Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM). Este fue el primer encargo de este tipo recibido por el Taller. La imagen hace hincapié no sólo en el papel de los trabajadores en la difusión de la “propaganda gráfica” sino también en la habilidad del medio gráfico mismo para promocionar la solidaridad entre las causas de izquierda.

Catalogue

Year: 1933
Medium: Lithograph in black and red (recto) and lithograph in black (verso) on cream wove paper
Dimensions: Image: 29.4 × 47.4 cm (11 5/8 × 18 11/16 in.); Sheet: 32.6 × 50.6 cm (12 7/8 × 19 15/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Leopoldo Méndez

Artist

Leopoldo Méndez

Printmaking

Leopoldo Méndez was a Mexican printmaker whose lithographs and woodcuts became foundational to twentieth-century Latin American social realism. Working from the 1920s onward, he deployed bold graphic forms and stark tonal contrasts to chronicle labor struggles, indigenous life, and anti-imperialist resistance. His prints circulated among working-class and activist networks across Mexico and beyond, establishing printmaking as a vehicle for direct political intervention rather than institutional mediation. The formal clarity of his compositions, combined with their urgent social content, shaped successive generations of socially engaged artists in the Americas.

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