Mexican "Blaxploitation" Pulp Art

Mexico has a rich tradition of street-level popular art, from the satirical woodcuts of Posada to modern-day graffiti artists. Among the most unique examples are Mexico’s pulp fiction illustrations, produced in huge volume from the 1960s through the 80’s. This cover art often featured outrageous, transgressive images of monsters, aliens, ghouls, and wild beasts menacing their attractive victims— images which may-or-may-not have related to the stories inside. The paintings (usually gouache, or tempera on board) were usually discarded, or painted over, by artists working for hire.

Those that survived have become highly collectible, as evidenced by a number of gallery shows in recent years, including “Pop Pulp!” at Firecat Projects in Chicago, and “Pulp Drunk: Mexican Pulp Art” at the Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York. In his review of the “Pulp Drunk,” New York Times critic Ken Johnson wrote: “Unvarnished by society’s mainstream public morality, these images have a kind of authenticity resembling, in some ways, that of Outsider art. They expose the throbbing id of the collective unconscious, which is why artists like the Pop-surrealist Jim Shaw and the Pop-conceptualist Mike Kelley found so much inspiration in this sort of psychoanalytically combustible material.”

While much of the art is bizarre to the point of surrealism, this is composition a bit more refined. It depicts a Black woman wearing a red bikini (and matching thigh-high boots), looking over her shoulder and menacing the viewer with a revolver. In the background is an urban skyline, and a man assaulting a woman with a knife. There is more than a passing reference to 1970s American blaxploitation films, especially Pam Grier in “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown.” The artistry is impressive, much more so than is typical of the genre. We do not know the artist’s name, but the illustration is for “Los Detectives No. 240.”

Gouache on board, 14.5” x 10.5”