Pulp Drunk: Mexican Pulp Art (Redux): Online Exclusive

10 January - 9 March 2025

In post-war America, the rise of erotic pulp paperback covers marked a turning point in visual and literary marketing. These covers were specifically designed to captivate buyers with promises of sex, drama, and suspense. Around the same time, a similar publishing trend emerged in Mexico, but with a distinct twist. While Mexican pulp covers shared an emphasis on provocative imagery, they also embraced themes of violence, sci-fi eccentricities, psychedelia, crime, and murder, often leaning into the bizarre and surreal rather than focusing solely on sensuality.

 

The sensational cover art from the 1960s and 1970s often featured vivid, fantastical depictions of extraterrestrials, robots, dinosaurs, and iconic figures like Zorro, interwoven with elements of suspense, romance, mystery, and the supernatural. The stories typically revolved around everyday individuals thrust into extraordinary and perilous situations due to poor judgment or risky decisions. Through striking colors, dramatic shadows, and bold compositions, the cover art conveyed a sense of unease and curiosity about the character’s fate, often without requiring readers to open the book.

 

The thirteen works featured in this online exclusive were exhibited in Ricco/Maresca’s 2015 show Pulp Drunk: Mexican Pulp Art and subsequently acquired into a private collection. The thirteen works featured in this online exclusive were originally exhibited as part of Ricco/Maresca’s 2015 show Pulp Drunk: Mexican Pulp Art and subsequently acquired into a private collection. Now newly available, they present a rare opportunity to own exceptional examples of a captivating art form that remains underappreciated within the realm of pop culture. As Maria Cristina Tavera observes in her preface to the 1997 book Mexican Pulp Art, the fantastical elements of these covers reflect Mexican perspectives on life, death, mysticism, and the supernatural. This exhibition not only showcases the vibrant artwork that once adorned Mexican paperbacks but also delves into the cultural values underlying Mexico's unique approach to art and consumerism.

 

This exhibition presents a striking array of fantastical and dramatic scenes: a woman clutching a pig as she flees from a pursuing officer, a rampaging gorilla crashing through a door, tiny green elves overpowering their victim under the terrified gaze of a maid, and a shadowy figure looming ominously behind a frightened femme fatale in a vibrant green dress. Other works depict a bold feline superhero poised for action, circus chaos with clowns and tigers, and eerie moonlit encounters with werewolves. Together, these works blur the line between popular fiction and folklore, offering a surreal, hyper-vivid lens through which to explore the intersection of the mundane and the absurd. They encapsulate a rich cultural narrative, merging pulp fiction’s melodramatic tension with Mexico’s distinct artistic traditions.