Leopoldo Méndez
(Mexican, 1902–1968)
Homenaje a José Guadalupe Posada (Homage to José Guadalupe Posada)
Object Details
Artist
Leopoldo Méndez
Date
1956
Medium
Linoleum cut on machine-made wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 10 7/8 x 23 3/4 inches (27.6 x 60.3 cm)
Sheet: 12 1/2 x 26 inches (31.8 x 66 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Robert and Joan Bechhofer
Object
Number
92.044.011
Leopoldo Méndez, who cofounded the renowned printmaking studio known as the Taller de Gráfica Popu(…)
Leopoldo Méndez, who cofounded the renowned printmaking studio known as the Taller de Gráfica Popular, renders a commanding portrait of José Guadalupe Posada in his studio. Méndez draws a visual link between the carving tools that Posada wields and the knives brandished by the revolutionary fighters on horseback outside his window. Also pictured are the Flores Magón brothers, anarchist journalists who worked tirelessly to oust dictator Porfirio Díaz from power; one of them holds a sheet of paper with a fragment of text from the 1906 Programa del Partido Liberal Mexicano y Manifiesto a la Nación, a precursor to the 1917 constitution whose publication paved the way for the Mexican Revolution. (“This is no Less Curious: Journeys through the Collection” cocurated by Sonja Gandert, Alexandra Palmer, and Alana Ryder and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 – April 12, 2015)
