Carne de Cañón (Cannon Fodder)

In 1951, the American artist and activist Dimondstein moved to Mexico after being blacklisted during the McCarthy era. While there, he taught art and worked with revolutionary artists, including the muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, and joined the Taller de Gráfica Popular, creating prints such as Cannon Fodder that expressed his opposition to authoritarian regimes. A giant menacing skeleton wearing a hat with a fascist eagle insignia gingerly drops a man into a large black funnel. A smaller figure resembling the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco wraps his arms around the funnel’s base so that it empties into the barrel of a cannon. There, desperate men attempt to escape. The work likely draws on Dimondstein’s own experience witnessing combat while serving in the U.S. Army during WWII.