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Abstract composition with a head and bird-like form, from the portfolio 'Motivos'

1936
Not on view
Mérida was part of the Mexican muralist movement in the 1920s and one of the first artists to fuse European modernism with Latin American themes. This print (from a portfolio of three) is directly inspired by aphorisms in The Prince (1532), a political treatise written by the Italian author Niccolò Machiavelli for the education of new princes. Mérida’s prints imaginatively blend abstract and figurative elements in dreamlike compositions that reveal the artist’s long-standing interest in Surrealism.





Mérida formó parte del movimiento mexicano de muralistas en la década de 1920 y fue uno de los primeros artistas que fusionaron el arte moderno europeo con temas latinoamericanos. Este grabado, incluidos en un porfolio de tres, están inspirados en aforismos de El príncipe (1532), un tratado político escrito por el autor italiano Nicolás Maquiavelo para la educación de los nuevos príncipes. En los grabados, Mérida combina imaginativamente elementos abstractos y figurativos en composiciones oníricas que revelan su dilatado interés por el surrealismo.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Abstract composition with a head and bird-like form, from the portfolio 'Motivos'
  • Series/Portfolio: Motivos
  • Artist: Carlos Mérida (Guatemalan, Guatemala City 1891–1984 Mexico City)
  • Publisher: Ediciones Arte Mexicano (EAM), Mexico City
  • Date: 1936
  • Medium: Colour woodcut in purple
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 9 1/16 × 6 5/16 in. (23 × 16 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Jean Charlot, 1938
  • Object Number: 38.72.5
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Trajes Regionales Mexicanos (Regional Mexican Dress), Carlos Mérida Mexican, Silkscreen
Trajes Regionales Mexicanos (Regional Mexican Dress)
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Author Introduction by Salvador Echeverría
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1945
Teponaztli, Wood, Mexico
Teponaztli
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20th century
Snake Man, Alison Saar American, Color woodcut and lithograph
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Abstract composition with a head and bird-like form, from the portfolio 'Motivos', Carlos Mérida Mexican, Colour woodcut in red
Abstract composition with a head and bird-like form, from the portfolio 'Motivos'
Carlos Mérida
Publisher Ediciones Arte Mexicano (EAM), Mexico City
1936
International exhibition of surrealism, André Breton French
International exhibition of surrealism
Editor André Breton
Translator José Vázquez Amaral
Publisher Galeria de Arte Mexicano
1940

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