¿Qué es el TGP?

Date: 1949

Medium: Linocut

Dimensions (cm.): 15.0 x 24.8

Alternate titles: TGP; Taller de Gráfica Popular

Published edition: Unknown

Contemporary publication: Trifold flier to publicize publication of Album TGP (Meyer 1949), 1949

References: Prignitz 1715

Selected additonal references (illustrated): Prignitz 2018, ch. 2 (illustrating both sides of flier)

Commentary: Méndez’s Taller de Gráfica Popular indicates the TGP’s growing awareness of the propaganda value of their prints in this image of a worker gazing at a TGP poster on a wall in downtown Mexico City. The image expresses the mission of the TGP, which was deliver anti-fascist, pro-union, pro-Cárdenas messages to the working class. The work is doubly referential, as the picture within a picture alludes to the reception of the work by its intended audience. In addition, the print itself is an artisanal product that represents another handmade object, competing with commercially produced work. As the product of an independent artist/artisan, it is also a sign of the workshop itself, a message reinforced by the block letters on the right of the image, thus constructing the identity of the Taller as a historical and cultural phenomenon. The members of the Taller felt that  their efforts were thwarted when the municipal government of Mexico City banned the practice of putting posters on walls in 1952. (Deborah Caplow)

Catalogue record number: 129