Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"Carlos Cortéz, son of a Mexican-Indian and German, considered himself Mexican despite having lived only in Milwaukee and Chicago. A pacifist, Cortéz served two years in federal penitentiary as a conscientious objector to WWII. After prison Cortéz joined the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World, nicknamed “Wobblies,” – Hispanics in Chicago striving toward improved working conditions and equality).
For over forty years he served as columnist, editor, poet, and public face for the IWW union paper, Industrial Worker. Cortéz published four books; his first, Crystal-Gazing the Amber Fluid & Other Wobbly Poems received the Kwanzaa award. Though formally untrained, he remains the only Wobbly with art in NY’s MOMA, the Smithsonian Institute, and leading galleries in Germany and Spain.
Cortéz blended German Expressionist printmaking (Käthe Kollwitz and George Grosz) with ancient Aztec/modern Chicano themes. He acknowledged the influence of Mexican wood-engraver José Guadalupe Posada, Alfredo Zalce, and the “Taller de Gráfica Popular” – artists who, like Cortéz, used reproducible printing as a means of social education and reform.
In portraying workers and peasants, Cortéz sought to instruct and inspire the Hispanic community and, he hoped, the disenfranchised everywhere. Purdue has one of Cortéz’s best-known images, “Joe Hill” – one of his many large linocut poster-portraits of activists. Notice the prominence of the figure’s hands on his accordion and the integration of text, “Joe Hill murdered by the . . . mine owners . . . to silence his songs,” and overt calls to action.
Cortéz dated but never numbered his editions. He stipulated in his will that “if any of my graphic works are selling for high prices, immediate copies should be made to keep the price down.” He wished to disseminate his ideas far and wide. Cortéz died in 2005 of heart failure. Impressions from his original plates continue.
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