The Power and Politics of Art in Postrevolutionary Mexico

“Smith demonstrates how individuals wove their involvement with the PCM into their art, political action, and personal relationships, and how these connections evolved over time. The result is an impressive work of scholarship that is a joy to read.”—H-Net Reviews

“A superb new study of art in Mexico from the 1920s to the 1950s. . . . Remarkable for its incorporation of new archival sources and mastery of existing scholarship.”—The Americas

“This book will no doubt appeal to the nearly insatiable popular interest, unmitigated by time, in the transnational bohemian cohort gathered in revolutionary Mexico.”—Hispanic American Historical Review

“Smith’s book contributes to our understanding of just how important the PCM became for artists.”—American Historical Review

“Far reaching, pathbreaking, and ambitious, Stephanie Smith‘s book is the first to fully recognize the many contributions of numerous women in the intellectual, artistic, and political circles of 1920s and '30s Mexico City — revealing their marginalization by both the right and the left. Perhaps most important, she productively expands the concept of culture in postrevolutionary Mexico. Required reading.” — Ben Fallaw, Colby College

“A valuable introduction to the lives and works of Mexican artists during the epic postrevolutionary period — nothing else comes close to its scope. Stephanie Smith is the first historian to place the relationship between artists and Mexican Communism at center stage. Tracing the complicated and changing relationships that bound artists to the Communist movement, she shows why politics mattered for the state, artists, and, more generally, radical intellectuals.” — Barry Carr, La Trobe University