Lehman College Art Gallery, the National Commission of Gratuitous Textbooks and the Consulate General of Mexico presents Pintando: Colors of Education, which features more than 36 paintings by renowned twentieth-century painters based in Mexico. This special exhibition includes artists such as Manuel Felguérez, Leonora Carrington and Jorge González Camarena; whose aesthetic highlights the features and symbols of Mexico’s history. These paintings are widely recognized as treasures of Mexican heritage. The National Commission of Gratuitous Textbooks commissioned them in two different periods: from 1960-62 and 1987–88, to illustrate the covers of the public books. The exhibition is organized after the agreement between the Mexican Ministry of Public Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, within the framework of this agreement the National Commission of Gratuitous Textbooks announces the itinerant exhibition.

Pintando: Colors of Education’s presentation at Lehman College celebrates an agreement signed earlier this year between Lehman and eight of Mexico’s top public universities to strengthen cooperation that will lead to student and faculty exchange opportunities. This is an unprecedented agreement between Mexican universities and the Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute at the City University of New York, based at Lehman College. The Mexican Studies Institute seeks to foster research with and about Mexico and Mexicans in the United States, and collaborate with community-based organizations to support and empower the Mexican immigrant community.

Lehman College has deep ties with the nation of Mexico. In 2013 the College became the only official recipient of an Olmec Head statue in the U.S. The statue—a replica of “The King”—was the first such sculpture to be unearthed in San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, Veracruz, Mexico in 1964. The replica was a gift from Mexico to celebrate the first anniversary of the Mexican Studies Institute at CUNY and was installed adjacent to Lehman College’s main plaza.