Week 4 Post: ¡Printing the Revolution! Exhibition Preview

I chose to write this post on the ¡Printing the Revolution! Exhibition Preview

    The sole purpose of this virtual exhibition was to provide a great understanding of the American experiences and inclusively view America and American art. The show also provides a powerful artwork from the 60s to today that shines on both the good and bad sides of American history. Not only that it shows the struggle that we underwent along with the struggles we continue to face right now. 

    An interesting detail about Carme was that she had joined the Smithsonian American art museum about 10 years ago and since then doubled the Latinx artwork. She worked alongside Claudia Zapata when writing these articles which ended with a big success as these prints are filled with knowledge, history, and the development of the community from the art perspective. 

    The largest section of the exhibition was the reimagining national and global histories of how artists visualize American history based on the experience of black, indigenous, and people of color. Out of the entire preview experience, this section, I feel, was the most compelling. It began with Cuban revolution and Vietnam war artists like Malaquias Montoya that spoke about issues like colonialism, U.S intervention, dictatorship, and oppression. 

    When Carmen and Claudia were in the depths of creating this wonderful experience for all of us to share, they realized a few things. One being that artists used portraiture as a window into history. Another detail they noticed was that artists combined text and image to shine on those who make a change and those who altered global history. The final detail was that artists, in their work, portrayed figures who fought against Spanish colonialism, activist or racial justice, and labor leaders.     

    Towards the end of the exhibitions, it went more in-depth about interventions and digital innovations exploring the subversive ways artists inserted work into the public. They also shared how graphics changed in the digital age and what artist did when this was rising in popularity. Some of my favorites included Chico Gonzalez and Zeke Pena whose artwork supplemented reality technology by adding a level of public interaction to their prints. 

    Overall, this was a fine experience to learn and explore the hidden gems in the Latinx/Chicanx art perspective.