Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Mexican Graphic Art and Visual Culture in the early 20th Century

This book challenges the national myth that Mexican art between the Mexican Revolution and the Second World War was inevitably and thoroughly populist and nationalist and argues instead that there was no such all-encompassing spirit, and even art intended for broad populations was not always democratic. The author explores the painstaking efforts of artists and arts administrators to stake their claims to public art and link that cultural production to some of the most extreme political goals and allegiances of the early 20th century. The chapters follow influential cultural producers, Vasconcelos, Dr. Atl, and the members of the Taller de Gráfica Popular, whose involvement in thinking about the revolution and the role of art in it began with leadership roles in the early 1920s. In the subsequent decades, these leaders whose work might have seemed to share common values early on pursued sharply divergent paths as they considered global fascist, antifascist, and antisemitic movements. The polarized politics of the Second World War provide an opportunity to assess the extent of the divisions as these leaders divide themselves between Nazi collaborators and members of the resistance. The cultural producers examined in this study had a commonality of an often-agile navigation of nationalist trends in the service of work and philosophies that were flexible, wide ranging, and international. Merfish traces their work over the long period of the early 20th century examining their rise to prominence in the revolutionary period and across the Second World War era. This book is ideal for researchers and students interested in Mexican Art History, Modern Print Culture, and Mexican History.

Beth Matusoff Merfish is Director of the School of Art and Associate Professor of Art History, University of Houston

List of Figures Acknowledgements Chapter One - "Creative Capacity at the Service of the People:" Fundamental Tenets and Foundational Myths of the TGP Chapter Two - "Those Who Will Lead the Revolution to Victory:" The Collaborative Relationship Between the TGP and the German-Speaking Émigrés in Mexico Chapter Three - "To all who have died, to all who are fighting:" A Case Study of the Libro negro Chapter Four - José Vasconcelos as Fascist: Understanding the Role of Timón in his Long Career Chapter Five - Chapter Five: Dr. Atl's Pervasive and Eruptive Antisemitism Conclusion Bibliography Index