MASP — Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand will present, starting May 15, the exhibition Picture gallery in transformation: recent gifts. Part of the Latin American histories series at MASP, the exhibition brings together two sets of silkscreen prints recently added to the museum’s collection: by artist Abraham Cruzvillegas (Mexico City, 1968) and by the collective Taller Popular de Serigrafía (Buenos Aires, active between 2001 and 2007). “Latin American political printmaking is one of the richest traditions in the region’s visual arts, articulating demands and protests of various kinds,” says Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of MASP.

Formed in the context of Argentina’s economic and social crisis in 2001, the Taller Popular de Serigrafía combined art and activism by participating directly in public demonstrations. In this process, screen printing was mobilized as an immediate political tool, as the collective held mobile workshops at street protests and in occupied factories, printing messages on posters, fabrics, and the protesters’ own clothing. Somos nosotros (2002) was one of the works distributed across various neighborhoods of Buenos Aires to mobilize new demonstrations on the first anniversary of the December 2001 protests, which culminated in the ouster of President Fernando de La Rúa following intense popular mobilization. The collection includes 51 silkscreen prints produced between 2002 and 2007.

The series Ink and blood: 1968–2009 by Abraham Cruzvillegas consists of 41 facsimiles of posters, flyers, and stickers from various social movements and political demonstrations in Latin America, produced between 1968 and 2009. The series begins in 1968, the year of the artist’s birth and a milestone of state violence in Mexico marked by the Tlatelolco massacre, in which demonstrators were repressed and murdered during protests against the hosting of the Olympic Games in Mexico City. Cruzvillegas compiled this iconographic archive from various sources, including the collection of visual chronicler Arnulfo Aquino, in a non-selective manner. The title of the series encapsulates the work: ink as the dissemination of ideas and blood as a symbol of repression and the vitality of the people.

Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director at MASP, Regina Teixeira de Barros, curator of collections at MASP, and Matheus de Andrade, curatorial assistant at MASP, the exhibition brings together works that have been added to the collection through donations from artists and private individuals. These new acquisitions expand the presence of political silkscreen prints in the MASP collection, which already includes works by collectives such as the American groups Gran Fury and Guerrilla Girls, and the Argentine group Serigrafistas Cuir—which includes former members of the Taller Popular de Serigrafía. “Due to its ease of reproduction and circulation, silkscreen printing has historically established itself as a fundamental political tool on the streets. In the year of Latin American histories at MASP, the works reflect the broad social mobilization across the continent, from struggles for civil liberties to social equality,” comments Matheus de Andrade.

Picture gallery in transformation: recent gifts is part of MASP’s annual programme dedicated to Latin American histories. This year’s programme also includes exhibitions by Santiago Yahuarcani, Claudia Alarcón & Silät, Damián Ortega, La Chola Poblete, Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, Colectivo Acciones de Arte, Sol Calero, Carolina Caycedo, Pablo Delano, Rosa Elena Curruchich, Manuel Herreros and Mateo Manaure, Jesús Soto, and an international group exhibition.