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Calaveras' symphony concert

1934
Not on view
This print served as the cover of the first issue of Frente a Frente (Head to Head), a magazine published by the League of Revolutionary Artists and Writers. The image denounces the inauguration of the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. Two skeletons inspired by the earlier art of José Guadalupe Posada gaze toward the viewer: the one at left represents the artist Diego Rivera as a servant of the Fourth International (a communist organization), and the one at right Carlos Riva Palacio, president of the National Revolutionary Party (1933–34). Méndez casts them both as reactionary capitalists and traitors to the working classes, who could never afford to attend such a performance and are represented by figures at lower right being ousted from the venue.



Este grabado sirvió como portada del primer número de Frente a Frente, una revista publicada por la Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios. La imagen denuncia la inauguración del Palacio de Bellas Artes en Ciudad de México. Dos calaveras inspiradas en las creaciones de José Guadalupe Posada miran al espectador. La de la izquierda representa al artista Diego Rivera, descrito como un siervo de la Cuarta Internacional (una organización comunista) y la de la derecha, a Carlos Riva Palacio, presidente del Partido Nacional Revolucionario (1933-34). Méndez los retrata como capitalistas reaccionarios y traidores a las clases trabajadoras, que nunca podrían permitirse asistir a un evento como ese y que están personificadas por las figuras de la esquina inferior derecha, a las que se está expulsando del palacio.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Calaveras' symphony concert
  • Series/Portfolio: Frente a Frente
  • Artist: Leopoldo Méndez (Mexican, 1902–1969)
  • Date: 1934
  • Medium: Wood engraving
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 9 5/8 × 7 7/8 in. (24.5 × 20 cm)
    Image: 8 7/8 × 6 1/2 in. (22.5 × 16.5 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1946
  • Object Number: 46.46.36
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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'Anthropos', a single part of a periodical published for the months April to June 1947 in Mexico City, consisting of an illustrated front cover and text illustrated with numerous woodcuts, and an original linocut 'Mitin' tipped in between pp.16-17, all by Leopoldo Méndez
Leopoldo Méndez
1947
The Protest; a gigantic man standing with his left fist clenched, from "Agua y Cuace"
Leopoldo Méndez
1937
Illustration for a ballad (corrido): two Mexican men, one holding a sword, the other a hammer, that they are about to strike groups of fascists on either side
Leopoldo Méndez
1937
Cranes collecting skeletons and depositing them in a pit, from "El Machete"
Leopoldo Méndez
1935
Head of a man who grows out of a Chicle tree, from "Tierra del Chicle"
Leopoldo Méndez
1937

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