Cedar Rapids Museum of Art announces major acquisition of prints from Mexico

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art has announced a major acquisition of art works by Mexican artists.

In the spring of 2025, local artist and professor emeritus of Mount Mercy College Charles Barth approached the CRMA with a proposal to acquire and donate a series of prints by artists from Oaxaca in memory of his late wife Ellen.

Ellen Barth was also an artist and taught art in various capacities in the Cedar Rapids area. The couple lived and worked in Cedar Rapids most of their lives and for the past 30 years had a second home in Oaxaca, where Chuck had been taking Mount Mercy students for several years. Ellen’s passing prompted Chuck, a painter and printmaker, to approach the CRMA with this idea to acquire works to add to the museum’s formidable print collection.

In late June, CRMA Executive Director Sean Ulmer traveled to Oaxaca to visit galleries, artist collectives and artists’ studios with Chuck to see the range of available work and to begin to narrow down the choices for the donation. The results of this research were brought back and in consultation with the CRMA’s Curator of Collections & Exhibitions, Julia Jessen, a final list was determined.

In the end, 40 works of art were acquired, primarily prints but also a few small canvases, a drawing and an embroidered work. The artists acquired comprise a list of mainly living artists, although a few works represent the previous two generations of Mexican printmakers. Combined, these works provide a compelling snapshot of the innovative printmaking happening in Mexico, and in Oaxaca in particular. The newly acquired works will be the subject of a stand-alone exhibition at the CRMA in the near future.

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“The artwork in this gift explores themes of politics, community, heritage, dreams, the natural world and many more subjects,” Jessen said. “It provides a vibrant and diverse addition to the collection, and I look forward to exhibiting and discussing these works both as a group and in conversation with other pieces from the collection.”

Artists included in this gift are Natividad Amador, Fernando Andriacci, Daniel Barraza, Gerardo de la Barrera, Iván Bautista, Mario Martin del Campo, Dario Castillejos, Vladimir Cora, José Luis Cuevas, Enrique Flores, Oscar Camilo de las Flores, Raúl Herrera, Maximino Javier, Wifredo Lam, Rubén Leyva, Franco Ludwing, Uriel Marin, Eddie Martinez, Leovigildo Martinez, Felipe Morales, Rodolfo Morales, Fernando Olivera, Paco de la Peña, Tomás Pineda, Joel Rendon, Michael Roman, Cecilio Sanchez, Alejandro Santiago, Subterráneos Collective and Francisco Toledo.

“This amazing gift has greatly enriched the CRMA’s extraordinary print collection,” Ulmer said. “Mexican prints were not an area of great strength for us, and thanks to Chuck and his family, we now have a wonderful representation of this important movement in the collection to share with all of Eastern Iowa.”