November 3, 1958
Thirty-nine prints by 20 U.S. artists, which caused much lively comment during the past summer at the huge First Inter-American Biennial Exhibition in Mexico, D.F., will be exhibited on the Museum’s second floor from November 4 to January 11. The prints and paintings representing the U.S. in Mexico were selected by the Brooklyn Museum at the request of the USIA, and proved to be far more advanced in character than the selections made by a conservative Mexican jury. Yet it was a Mexican jury which awarded the José Guadalupe Posada Prize of $800 to the U.S. artist Mauricio Lasansky for his print “España,” to be included in the Museum’s exhibition. Miss Una E. Johnson, Curator of Prints and Drawings, who chose the Mexican showing of U.S. Prints, is also organizing the Museum show.
Among the works of art exhibited in Mexico - which represented 21 countries including all of Latin-America and Canada - that of the U.S. artist was generally considered the most competent, vigorous and colorful. It created much argument pro and con among the critics, the general public, and especially among the numerous modern Mexican artists whose work had been excluded by their own country’s jury, despite a long-time natural tradition of encouragement of modern art expression.
The following 20 U.S. artists made the exhibited 39 prints in many graphic media, 10 of which are in black and white, 29 in color:
Leonard Baskin
Edmond Casarella
Ralston Crawford
Worden Day
Arthur Deshaies
Edward Giobbi
Max Kahn
Misch Kohn
Mauricio Lasansky
Gerson Leiber
Boris Margo
George Miyasakl
Gabor Peterdi
Michael Poncé de Léon
Rudy Pozzati
André Racz
Karl Schrag
Sylvia Wald
Walter Williams
Richard Charles Zoellner
There will be a cocktail preview for exhibiting artists on November 3 from 5-7 p.m. to which press representatives are cordially invited.
Photographs available - Betty Chamberlain
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1953 - 1970. 1958, 054. View Original
