SAN ANTONIO, TX.- Opening today at
McNay Art Museum, La Revolución Mexicana: 100 Years Later marks the centennial of the end of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) with a spotlight on Michoacan printmaker Artemio Rodriguez. His portfolio of 18 linoleum block prints created in 2010 to mark the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican Revolution is on view together for the first time at the McNay.
The brilliantly contrasting black and white linocuts include portraits of prominent figures on both sides of the struggle. The artists portrait of dictator Porfirio Díaz and the Eurocentric nature of his rule strikingly contrasts the portrait of the great revolutionary leader, Emiliano Zapata, on horseback in rural Mexico with small farms and mountains in the background.
Many Mexican families fleeing the violence of the Revolution came to San Antonio and surrounding areas in search of safety, said Lyle Williams, McNay Curator of Prints and Drawings. San Antonios ties to the Mexican Revolution run very deep, and the exhibition is timed to be on view during the citys Diez y Seis celebrations.
Complementing Rodriguezs portfolio are prints from the McNays extensive collection of portraits of Zapata by Diego Rivera, Melanie Cervantes, Ignacio Aguirre, Sarah Jiménez, Francisco Mora, José Clemente Orozco, Luis "Teak" Rodriguez, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Some of the exhibitions contemporary portraits of the revolutionary are new acquisitions on view for the first time, and are a testament to Zapatas enduring legacy in the social, political, and cultural life of Mexico.
A video by Cecilia Rascón highlights the roles women played during the Mexican Revolution, and features one of the most famous photographs of women in this momentSoladeras by Geronimo Hernandez.
La Revolución Mexicana: 100 Years Later is organized for the McNay Art Museum by Lyle W. Williams, Curator of Prints and Drawings. It is on view in the Charles Butt Paperworks Gallery through November 24, 2019