Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Zalce, Alfredo |
Title |
Sisal Processing |
Date |
1945-1946 |
Medium |
lithograph |
Culture |
Mexican |
Object ID |
2003.5.4 |
Collection |
Modern Latin American Art |
Object Name |
|
Credit line |
Curator's Discretionary Fund |
Didactic Information |
In 1937, Alfredo Zalce cofounded the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP, Workshop of the People's Graphics), a group dedicated to educating the generation following the Mexican Revolution through visual art. Zalce and the TGP hoped to reach the humble Mexican worker and demonstrate the Revolution's achievements of social equality, as peasants were liberated and empowered by the uprisings. Like Sisal Processing, 1945-46, many didactic works produced by the TGP demonstrate the value of men and women laboring together for a common purpose. Zalce's lithograph depicts a rudimentary machine of labor with workers managing several steps of sisal production from its raw state to bundling. Zalce creates a narrative of manufacturing, demonstrating that without the cooperation and empowerment of the work force, this productive activity would not flourish. Zalce made art in a wide range of media at a time when art was aligned with political activity, and he emphasized the missionary aspect of his work and tried to avoid the fame and fortune that it could bring him. |