Boy

Mexican artist Antonio Pujol was politically active throughout the 1930s. He joined an alliance of artists and writers opposed to fascism and government censorship of art and even fought with the republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Upon returning to Mexico, he joined the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Workshop of Popular Graphic Arts) whose members considered printmaking an appropriately public medium for socially concerned artists.

Pujol created Boy while associated with the TGP. Set against a strikingly blank background, the disheveled youth likely relates to both the Mexican Revolution and Pujol’s experience in Spain. The boy, with his tattered clothing and street-wise expression, may be a cross-cultural emblem for downtrodden people who, despite their circumstances, retain their character.