El Movimiento Estudiantil: Three Posters

1968

El Movimiento Estudiantil de 1968: Three Posters. México: 1968. Donde hay lucha hay sacrificios [...], linocut?, 34 x 47 cm, center crease, newsprint toned as expected; Asesinos. Pueblo: el gobierno te engaña [...] ¡Despierta!; 29 x 43 cm, an uneven impression, colored ink slightly faded, typical minor soiling and staining for a protest poster; and Untitled [after Adolfo Mexiac]; offset?; 44.7 x 29.8 cm, unevenly trimmed.

Rare surviving graphics from the 1968 student protest movement in Mexico City, which ended shortly before the ‘68 Olympics on October 2nd with the infamous Tlatelolco Massacre. The posters were printed rapidly and inexpensively during the summer and early fall for use during massive demonstrations and as street propaganda. They were primarily created by student collectives at the San Carlos and La Esmerelda art schools using linocut and silkscreen in addition to offset presses. In addition to original artwork, the artists appropriated militant imagery and text from previous social protest movements and legendary Taller Grafica Popular prints.

This group includes two uncommon examples together with a variation on a famous Adolfo Mexiac linocut that was repurposed (with the artist’s permission) during the protests. The juxtaposition of student artwork and protest language with the official Olympic graphic, as seen on the Asesinos example, was a hallmark of many of the ‘68 poster designs.

The first example is known from a copy in the UNAM archives, but otherwise unrecorded in OCLC holdings; we are unable to find location information for a copy of the second despite its reproduction by at least one blog. The third is a curious version of the Mexiac image, slightly altered from most period examples available for comparison, and evidence of the print collectives’ ongoing process of iteration and reproduction.

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