The Guerrilla Fighter Aureliano Rivera

Oggetto: Print
From the 1920s to the 1950s, Mexico witnessed an important printmaking revival that paralleled the country's mural movement led by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. While murals could only be experienced on site, prints were inexpensive, transportable, and accessible to all, especially the illiterate. Prints, therefore, were ideally suited for the propagandistic, political imagery championed by Mexican artists following the revolution (1910-20). The working classes led the revolt, and the artists addressed the resulting revolutionary ideals: opposition to exploitation and imperialism, equality among classes and races, an improved educational system, and other reforms. Heroes like Aureliano Rivera were often glorified as a reminder of the armed struggle that improved conditions for the majority of Mexicans.
Fonte: The Guerrilla Fighter Aureliano Rivera, 1951. Erasto Cortes Juarez (Mexican, c. 1911-). Wood engraving; sheet: 37.3 x 35.7 cm (14 11/16 x 14 1/16 in.); image: 27.3 x 21.7 cm (10 3/4 x 8 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift from funds of various donors to the Department of Prints and Drawings 2000.98