2025.1

Publications Filmées d'Art et d'Histoire

1962

1960s

MATERIALS: Color photographic transparency film (35mm); cardboard mounts; printed inks TECHNIQUES: Color photographic transparency (likely Kodachrome or Ektachrome film, depending on the production stock used by Publications Filmées d'Art et d'Histoire); offset-printed cardboard mounts

Inscription

Top front of slide

Mexique - Mexico México

Inscription

Bottom front of slide

UNESCO Diapositives d'œuvres d'art - Art Slides Diapositivas de obras de arte

Inscription

Top back of slide

UNESCO 1962

Inscription

Bottom back of slide

Réalisé pour l'UNESCO par publications filmées d'art et d'histoire 44, Rue du Dragon, PARIS-6°

French

Created for UNESCO by Art and History Films Publications 44 Dragon Road, Paris-6°

Front of each slide (transcribed exactly): - "MEXIQUE – MEXICO / MÉXICO" (top) - Slide number (top right, in red; "16" on the example shown) - Red dot (lower right, orientation marker) - "UNESCO" (lower center) - "Diapositives d'œuvres d'art – Art Slides / Diapositivas de obras de arte" (bottom) Reverse of each slide (transcribed exactly): - "© UNESCO 1962" (top) - "Réalisé pour l'UNESCO par Publications Filmées d'Art et d'Histoire / 44, Rue du Dragon, PARIS-6°" (bottom) Languages: French / English / Spanish (trilingual). Translation (as recorded): "Created for UNESCO by Art and History Films Publications, 44 Dragon Road, Paris-6th."

2 cm

2 cm

Good

UNESCO's "Art Slides / Diapositives d'œuvres d'art / Diapositivas de obras de arte" series was part of the postwar cultural-diplomacy and arts-education program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Founded in 1945, UNESCO developed in the 1950s and 1960s a broad portfolio of low-cost, mass-distributable educational materials — including books, filmstrips, slide sets, and traveling exhibitions — designed to bring reproductions of world art into schools and adult-education programs around the world, especially in countries that lacked museum collections or library resources. The "Art Slides" series was one of the flagship products in this program. Each country (or theme) was given a 30-slide set with reproductions of representative artworks, with the set carrying trilingual labels (French / English / Spanish) so that a single edition could be distributed across multilingual UNESCO member states. The 1962 "México" set is the Mexican entry in this series. The existing record's context note that "Prices per set vary according to country, but do not exceed equivalent of $12 in local currency" reflects UNESCO's commitment to mass-affordable distribution — $12 in 1962 dollars is the equivalent of roughly $115 today, a substantial but deliberately accessible price for a 30-slide cultural-education resource.

A Mexico-focused set is particularly resonant — Cuba had strong political and cultural ties with Mexico in the early revolutionary period (Mexico was one of the few Latin American countries that maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba throughout the 1960s embargo era).