David Alfaro Siqueiros in Prison

Publisher Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City Mexican

ca. 1961

Not on view

A militant social activist and committed Communist, David Alfaro Siqueiros was imprisoned at different times during his life. In 1960, he was arrested and incarcerated in Mexico City’s Lecumberri prison for openly criticizing the president and for leading protests against the arrests of striking workers and teachers (charges that were known to be false). In this print, protruding through the bars, the artist’s right hand points to a scene of a rich man wearing a top hat standing over a worker next to a bag inscribed "sulfur lead and zinc." This is a reference to the export of the country’s valuable mineral resources, the rewards of which did not benefit the Mexican miners who labored to extract it.

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Title: David Alfaro Siqueiros in Prison
Artist: Arturo García Bustos (Mexican, Mexico City 1926–2017)
Publisher: Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City
Date: ca. 1961
Medium: Linocut
Dimensions: Sheet: 27 9/16 × 17 11/16 in. (70 × 45 cm)
Image: 19 7/8 in. × 13 in. (50.5 × 33 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Gift of Richard and JoAnn Edinburg Pinkowitz, 2024
Object Number: 2024.69.8
Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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