Mexican graphic art

This exhibition apparently marks the 150th anniversary of the San Patricio Battalion but there is no reference to this in the…

This exhibition apparently marks the 150th anniversary of the San Patricio Battalion but there is no reference to this in the actual works; it appears to be merely a convenient date on which to hang the show. It is a sizeable show and familiar names are included as well as artists who have only recently emerged. Tamayo, the youngest and last of the great Mexical mural generation, stands out fearlessly and effortlessly with a flaming figure which is also a kind of Cross motif, done on very thick paper. By contrast, the single work by Leonora Carrington (a notable Surrealist) is a disappointment - a rather wispy, arty lithograph resembling a tentative pencil drawing. Of the succeeding generation, Jose Luis Cuevas is perhaps the best known, working in a style of quasi-surreal grotesquery.

From a technical viewpoint, it is encouraging to note the many lithographs included, at a time when the silkscreen had threatened to push that medium out - though there is no lack of silkscreen prints either. Among the etchers, Alfonso Lopez Monreal is familiar in Dublin, but his hard, linear style represents only one of the range of etching effects on view. There are occasional echoes of Picasso and of Miro, both notable graphic artists as well as painters, but these are muted and it seems that Mexico - like Latin America generally - looks less towards Paris than it once did.

Stylistically, the works vary from virtual illustration to the strictest post-Bauhaus abstraction. And though I had halfexpected a blaze of exotic colour, much of the show is relatively muted and sober in this regard. Names I noted down were Carlos Cuellar, Pedro Coronel, Arnaldo Coen, Pilar Castaneda, Magali Lara, Joy Laville, Vicente Rojo, Juan Soriano, Alfredo Zalce; but in an exhibition such as this one, virtually everybody makes their own personal choice according to their temperament and taste.

Runs until Sunday