Items
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Politics
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What May Come (Mexico, 1945) A signal image in Méndez’s oeuvre, this work is one of only three self-portrait prints made by the artist. Also known as Danger over Mexico and That Which Must Not Come, the print reflects upon the role of the politically engaged artist in Mexico at the end of World War II, a period of great uncertainty. In the print, the figure of Méndez lies across an open sketchbook and contemplates a nightmarish vision in which Mexican national symbols—the eagle, snake, and nopal cactus (references to the legend of the founding of Tenochtitlan, ancient Mexico City)—are grotesquely inverted, and social order is threatened by reactionary forces. The eagle, symbol of the Mexican republic, hangs on a swastika-cross, and behind, a column of fascist soldiers, supported by Catholic clerics, marches on Mexico City. The museum’s Print and Drawing Club commissioned Méndez to make the woodblock for this print. -
Proletarian Hand Méndez made most of his prints to call attention to social and political causes. Here he has surrounded a worker's hand with the last names of political martyrs in the United States and Mexico who were honored as heroes in left-wing circles all over the world. At first glance, the hand appears be an X-ray image, but closer examination reveals that the finger bones are hanged prisoners and the wrist bones are portraits of some of the persons named in the background. -
El Embajador Lane Wilson "Arregla" el Conflicto The American ambassador Lane Wilson playing with toy figures referring to his meddling in the affairs of Mexico, from the portfolio 'Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana' (prints of the Mexican Revolution). The American diplomat Henry Lane Wilson was appointed ambassador to Mexico in 1910. He purportedly assisted in arranging the 1913 murder of Francisco Madero, the revolutionary who succeeded Díaz as president. Wilson is believed to have hatched the plot with Victoriano Huerta, who had a military career in the Díaz government, and then became a supporter of Madero, only to betray him. The toy figurine held by Wilson in this print represents Huerta and refers to unwanted American intervention in Mexican politics. The figures in the right side are Madero and Zapata.