01 de Apr 1994 - 30 de Jun 1994
It is the purpose of the Museo Nacional de Arte to formulate temporary exhibitions that shed light on fragments of the visual culture comprised in the borders of its vocation. Constituted by a selection of approximately 500 prints coming mostly from the Biblioteca de Arte Mexicano, the exhibition Nación de imágenes. La litografía mexicana del siglo XIX, which was open from April to June of 1994, ensured, for the first time, an overview of the lithography in our country, from its introduction in 1826 by Claudio Linati to the work of José Guadalupe Posada at the beginning of the 20th century.
The museum chose to emphasize the aesthetic value per se of the stamps while highlighting the character of lithography as a documentary evidence of the last century.
The exhibition presented and interrelated the issues that most occupied the lithographic work in the 19th century in Mexico: civil life and its scenes of urban and rural daily life; the military life, where the significant participation of the stamp was recorded in the context of the avatars of the independent nation; religious life, which manifests a proselytizing function of lithography, in keeping with a country of deep devotions; political life, which highlighted the predominant role of lithography as a vehicle for ideologies and, very particularly, for the critical interpretation of national politics, and cultural life, where the importance of the stamp to contribute to knowledge and diffusion is clear of science, art, and history.
We hope that Nación de imágenes. La litografía Mexicana del siglo XIX opened the door for the conduction of studies and exhibitions that sought a deeper knowledge of specific aspects of lithography, an artistic technique that at the time not only offered great possibilities for reproduction, but was decisive to give body to the personality of the nation and constituted a definitive chapter in the history of Mexican art.