- Title
- Lázaro Cárdenas and the Spanish Civil War, 1936–39 (Lázaro Cárdenas y la guerra de España. 1936-39)
- Date Made
- 1947
- Medium
- Linocut
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 15 3/4 × 10 5/8 in. (40.01 × 26.99 cm); image: 8 7/8 × 12 1/4 in. (22.54 × 31.12 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2003.92.131
- Collecting Area
- Latin American Art
- Curatorial Notes
The events of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) helped shape the anti-fascist agenda of Mexico City’s Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP; People’s Print Workshop). In the gruesome clash that foreshadowed World War II, fascist Germany and Italy came to the support of General Francisco Franco (1892–1975), while Mexico’s leftist arts and labor organizations were among those who rallied on the side of the Spanish Republic. While governments in Europe and the United States claimed neutrality, Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas (1895–1970) denounced Franco’s army, offered aid to the Spanish Republic, and welcomed exiles. Alberto Beltrán commemorated Cárdenas’s involvement a decade later. In this linocut, Cárdenas holds the Mexican flag in one hand and extends his other hand to lead the charge. This print draws an implicit link between Cárdenas’s reforms in support of the working classes—and by extension the Republican forces—and his intervention in foreign politics and the battle against fascism.
For more information see the catalogue entry by Rachel Kaplan in Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany, 2022, pp. 18–19.
- Provenance
Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City, 1947; Dr. Jules Heller (1919–2007), Scottsdale, Arizona, 1947; LACMA, 2003.
- Selected Bibliography
- Kaplan, Rachel, and Erin Sullivan Maynes. Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2022.
- Selected Exhibition History
- Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany. October 29, 2022 - July 22, 2023
- Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany. October 29, 2022 - July 22, 2023
