Project Scope

In the past I’ve done research and projects on José Guadalupe Posada and through that research discovered Leopoldo Méndez. I began my image research in Google Arts & Culture and there was little description of the images, so I decided to do further research online regarding Mr. Méndez and his work. I learned that although he was an important graphic artist from Mexico, he was a relatively obscure figure. It is speculated that this is because he enjoyed working collaboratively and anonymously. Méndez didn’t believe in making profit from his work.  His work is focused on engraving for illustrations and other print work which is mainly connected to his political and social activism.

 

The objects in the collection were chosen based on how I felt about them and the imagery and feeling they conveyed.  I discovered that some of Méndez’s prints were part of a (book, portfolio) collection that he along with others created. An example of this is “25 Prints of Leopoldo Méndez”, where 25 wood engraving prints are a part of. The other images speak of the history or what the people of Mexico were going through at that time or how Méndez himself saw what his country and the world were going through.

 

The images included in this project came from various institutions such as: The Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Art, RISD Museum, as well as galleries such as: Artsy and Annex Galleries.

 

I noticed early on that Leopoldo Méndez’s prints had missing information and that some prints were part of book collections or a portfolio. I wanted to find as much information as I could on each image so that I could tell Méndez’s story.

 

The schema used for this project was Dublin Core and some elements were renamed to better fit the information needed. The site is comprised of three sets, 25 Prints of Leopoldo Méndez, Leopoldo’s Prints (images came from various sources) and Art Institute of Chicago. Tags were used where needed and the text come from the description of the images.

 

The Getty Union List of Artist Names (ULAN), Library of Congress Name Authority File (NAF), Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), were the authorities used to assign values to the Creator, Subject, Publisher, and Medium elements. There were some artists that had no records within the Library of Congress and Wikidata URIs were used to link the person to the record.

 

ELEMENTS, DESCRIPTIONS, and REASONS

 

Below is a detailed description of the elements, descriptions, and data types used to catalogue the works on this site.

 

Title – Titles will vary from institutions. Some names will be in English and some in Spanish. I wanted to include all possible name. Spanish titles are marked as (“es”)

 

Creator (Getty The Union List of Artists Names (ULAN))

Name of the creator provided by the source. I chose ULAN because it worked the best for my creator.

 

Date – The year provided by the institutions.

 

Publisher (Library of Congress Catalog)

Name of publisher if prints were part of a collection or portfolio and had a record in LC a link was created to that LC record.

 

Description – Text description was compiled by several resources or if source had a good description it would be used. Also, if Spanish descriptions were available, they were included in the record and were marked as (“es”).

 

Has Version (renamed Edition) – When possible I wanted to incorporate the edition of the book where the print had come from. Some prints included this information into their record, and I felt it was important to include.

 

Format (renamed Dimensions) – Used inches (in) and centimeters (cm) wherever provided from the source but changed the name for accuracy.

 

Medium – (Getty: The Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT))

It worked well with the media created by the artist.

 

Identifier – The identifier was taken from the source that was used.

 

Subject – (Library of Congress: All Authorities)

What the work is of or about, also looked for historical themes (“WWII”, “Mexican Revolution”) and names.

 

Access Rights – Image rights statement from the source.

 

Source – URL of where images came from.

 

Item sets25 Prints of Leopoldo Mendez, Leopoldo's Prints, Art Institute of Chicago

In “Deportation to Death” or “Deportación a la Muerte” the print focuses on the internment of the Jewish people in Europe. The print captures the pain, anguish and the defeat the people are feeling. This image is part of The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). I used some of the metadata and also incorporated some new elements such as, name of the publisher and provided a link to the book title. I also added subject headings and names using controlled vocabulary from the Library of Congress to enrich the metadata and added one other alternate name that I found from another institution. In every instance I cataloged the image of the work.