Spring Break
Mexican artists exhibit to showcase heritage
KELLY SKINNER
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A series of 10 lithographs created by Mexican artists will be on display starting today to honor National Hispanic Heritage Month at the Georgia Museum of Art.
The exhibit, Gráfica Mexicana, includes pieces that are all a part of the museum's permanent collection.
According to a statement written by the exhibit's curator, Dennis Harper, the artists were all "among the early and prominent members of the influential, political publishing workshop Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphic Arts Workshop) (TGP) in Mexico City."
He said "the 10 artists, and TGP itself, were born into and developed amid the turbulent years of the Mexican Revolution. The prints assembled in this exhibition reflect the legacy of that nation's struggle and its re-awakened pride in its people and its past."
The pieces are as bold as they are breathtaking - at some points taking on more of a social protest feel than one of beauty.
But these lithographs are not meant to agitate. They're meant to educate.
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As Leopoldo Mendez, one of the featured artists from the Taller de Gráfica Popular group, once said, "We are not yelling, nor are we trying to surprise anyone. Our task is to educate the people, making works that reflect in form and in spirit the Mexican Landscape and the Mexican Man."
"The works on display in Gráfica Mexicana - highlight the everyday lives of laborers and farmers from the mid-1940s. It represents a specific point in time and a specific experience those artists and their subjects were going through," said Johnathan McGinty, public relations coordinator for the museum.
The exhibition was conceived by Susan Harper, who worked in the education department of the museum as a graduate intern last year.
"While an intern, she put together a 'suitcase tour' of Spanish artists represented in the permanent collection before organizing this exhibition. Susan did the initial research on the prints in the show while I followed through with its development as in-house curator," Dennis Harper said of his wife.
Today is the first day that Gráfica Mexicana will be on display.
While there isn't a specific opening reception scheduled for this event, the museum plans to honor it during the Art Rosenbaum and Jay Robinson exhibitions on October 25.
These receptions will be free and open to the public, and they are fully catered.
McGinty said the reception will feature traditional old-time music by Dale Wechsler, Noel Beverley and friends, and Foodworks will be providing the food.
