The novel was published 110 years ago Those below, by Mariano Azuela; Now, for the first time, the 10 engravings that Adolfo Mejía Calderón, known as Adolfo Mexiac (1927-2019), made expressly to illustrate passages from this classic of the literature of the Mexican Revolution are on display. This was Mexiac’s “last great company” before he died.
The exhibition Those below: Mariano Azuela-Adolfo Mexiac. 110 years later… It is presented at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana (SPM) and brings together copies of various editions of the novel that belong to the collection of Óscar González Azuela, grandson of the writer.
In addition, works are included by artists who have illustrated the novel over time, such as José Clemente Orozco (1927), Gabriel García Maroto and Diego Rivera (both in 1929), as well as Mexiac’s contemporaries, including Fanny Rabel and Arturo García Bustos. The exhibition allows us to contemplate the contemporary reinterpretation of the work and its graphic history over the decades.
Works of a trained hand
The relationship between the editor and producer of the project, Octavio Fernández, with the Michoacan engraver dates back to his management as director of the National Print Museum, when the exhibition was held in 2016. Adolfo Mexiac: National tribute.
Some time later, in a conversation, “I told him that I wanted to write a book of his work, currently in progress.
“This book covers only the graphic aspect, since Mexiac was also a painter and muralist. It focuses on the 50s and 60s of the last century, because his work is vast.”
In the process the idea arose of illustrating “a great Mexican text: Those below, which is still valid. We need to learn many collective processes to achieve social justice,” says Fernández. Mexiac agreed, since, he said, it is a book that “I love a lot.”
▲ Two of the 10 engravings exhibited in the exhibition Those below: Mariano Azuela-Adolfo Mexiac. 110 years…, project made in linoleum by the Michoacan artist Adolfo Mexiac in 2018.Photo courtesy of the Salón Plástica Mexicana
The engraver did not take long to make the 10 illustrations that Fernández requested. “It is a work of maturity, by a hand trained with great care over seven decades, with an extraordinary capacity for synthesis.
“Linoleum has many complications because black is absolute, as is white, although an almost chromatic range is achieved, let’s say, due to the mastery with which the burin is handled.”
Beyond the fact that the engravings served as “illustrations in offset in a normal book”, Mexiac asked to make a folder with the 10 original works printed on linoleum, serialized, numbered and signed. An edition of 100 copies was then made.
Linoleum Mastery
The cover of the folder bears a medallion with the emblem of the eagle and the serpent. Fernández took the image of a bilimbique bill – a term given to the revolutionary money issued by Venustiano Carranza – from 1915, which appears with the legend of the provisional government of Mexico.
Regarding the use of linoleum, Octavio Fernández remembers that since he joined the Taller de Gráfica Popular in 1950, Mexiac practiced this technique.
“In order to prepare better, Mexiac went to the old School of Book Arts, founded by Francisco Díaz de León in 1938. Of all the printing techniques learned, linoleum was the one that worked the most throughout his life.”
According to Fernández, on the occasion of the 110 years of Those below Talks are underway with the Economic Culture Fund to see the possibility of republishing the novel with Mexiac’s illustrations.
Those below: Mariano Azuela-Adolfo Mexiac. 110 years later… It will be exhibited until January 25 at the SPM (Colima 196, Colonia Roma).