Ayude a Impedir Este Crimen [Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, TGP]

Mexico City: Taller de Gráfica Popular, 1953. Linocut and letterpress. 23 1/2 x 16 in. Very good. A superb work of solidarity with the Rosenbergs from this important radical Mexican muralist and printer, Francisco Mora, during his time at Taller de Grafica Popular - produced just months before their execution.

Accused of espionage on behalf of the Soviet state, the trial and subsequent execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg gained international attention and sparked expressions of international solidarity for the couple and their persecution, such as this.

Francisco Mora, a pupil of Diego Rivera, was a muralist and printmaker who was active in Taller de Gráfica Popular from the 1940s through the 1960s, producing numerous protest works in support of labor and against imperialism. In 1947, Mora married Elizabeth Catlett, the renowned African-American artist who also joined TGP and remained in Mexico until her death in 2012.

The image depicts the couple strapped into electric chairs; in the foreground, a hand with a dollar sign cufflink, representing the oppressive force of American capital and state, reaches for the switch while the hand of the proletariat reaches in to stop the execution.

"Ayude a impedir este crimen. Dos norteamericanos han sido sentenciados a morir en la silla eléctrica." ["Help to prevent this crime. Two North Americans have been sentenced to die in the electric chair."]