The Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1917), the first revolution of the 20th century, began as a protest against the dictatorship of President General Porfirio Diaz, who had ruled the country for 35 years (1876 - 1911). It unfolded in a devastating civil war between factions: the intellectual bourgeois middle class, the indigenous peasants and small farmers, and the revolutionaries from the north. 

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In 1917, a new constitution established some peace and stability and a slowly developing nation emerged. In 1920, the government embarked on an extensive programme to educate the largely illiterate population. The history of the country, its peoples and the ideals of the Mexican Revolution were presented in public buildings through murals by many artists; Mexican muralism was born.

Initially, however, these murals were only accessible to the educated in the capital and the larger cities, mainly university students, civil servants, politicians and professionals. The unlimited editions of woodcuts and linocuts by many artists, printed in the Taller Grafico Popular in Mexico City, could however bring the message of the revolution to a much wider audience in the country. The message was to emancipate and improve the lives of peasants, factory workers and indigenous people, and to provide much better education for the entire population.

This exhibition of 15 (fifteen) prints is suitable for a print room or for a section on Mexico. For example, an exhibition on art and government, art and propaganda, or the liberation of indigenous peoples in post-colonialism.

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Van Raay: I moved from England to Mexico in 2012 to live in a small fishing village on the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca. Later I had a tiny house in Mexico City for work, and travelled back and forth. This group of works is the result of weekends spent rummaging through the portfolios of antique and brocante dealers in the city's open markets. It was a personal journey of discovery: the woodcuts and linocuts are striking and bold. The studio stamp, Taller Grafico Popular, unites these works on paper. This is the story so far....