Just Do It

"Mexico And Modern Printmaking: A Revolution in the Graphic Arts, 1920-1950"

by James Saul

Runs through Jan. 14, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. and the Parkway, 215-763-8100, www.philamuseum.org

Viva la revolucion! The gorgeous prints on display at the Art Museum's "Mexico and Modern Printmaking" exhibition embody the political spirit of post-revolutionary Mexico.

The collection spans the larger part of the early 20th century, beginning near the end of the Mexican Revolution. Special emphasis is placed on the nonmural work of artists Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. That trio belonged to the Taller de Grafica Popular (People's Printmaking Workshop), a prolific collective that produced inexpensive prints and circulated them among the liberated populace.

"Mexican printmaking [was] one of the most exciting moments in art of the last century," says curator John Ittmann. "Many of them have a political punch that only a print could bring to art at that time."

The exhibit will be accompanied by the museum's inaugural cell phone tour.

All you do is call a number, and Ittmann will detail the exhibit in 12 separate segments. Regardless of what your mobile says, be sure to catch a glimpse of Rivera's The Communicating Vessels --nothing screams revolution like an anguished man detached from his own eyes and brain.