$12,500 to catalogue, archive, and present the museum’s recently acquired collection of the artist’s work, organized by permanent collections director Rebecca Myers. Cortéz lived and worked in Chicago as an artist, teacher, laborer and social activist. His work took many forms including painting, photography and poetry, but his primary expression was through printmaking due to the ease with which it spreads social messages quickly and inexpensively. Using print blocks he created from discarded pieces of wood, furniture and linoleum scraps, Cortéz explored a style that was influenced by German expressionists and printmakers of the Mexican Revolution.