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Collections

Leopoldo Méndez
Calaveras estranguladoras (Strangling Calaveras)1942

Not on view
Woodcut-style broadsheet printed in black on cream paper, with two pages featuring skeletal figures, caricatures, bold Spanish headlines reading 'CORRIDO DE STALINGRADO' and 'CALAVERAS ESTRANGULADORAS,' and columns of verse text
Broadside print with bold black ink illustrations arranged in a grid across two pages, featuring skeletal and caricatured figures in satirical scenes, accompanied by Spanish text captions including 'Boticarios y Medicinas,' 'La Fosa Común,' and 'Para Petain, Laval y Cia.' Strong contrast and expressive linework in woodcut or linocut style.
Artist or Maker
Leopoldo Méndez
Mexico, Mexico City, 1902-1969
Artist or Maker
Robert Mallary
United States, Ohio, Toledo, 1917-1997
Artist or Maker
Pablo O'Higgins
United States, active Mexico, 1904-1983
Artist or Maker
Alfredo Zalce
Mexico, Michoacán, Pátzcuaro, 1908-2003
Publisher
Taller de Gráfica Popular
Mexico, Mexico City, founded 1937
Title
Calaveras estranguladoras (Strangling Calaveras)
Date Made
1942
Medium
Linocut
Dimensions
Sheet: 18 1/2 × 27 1/2 in. (46.99 × 69.85 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Jules and Gloria Heller
Accession Number
M.2003.92.18
Classification
Prints
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

Each year the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP; People’s Print Workshop) produced a special broadsheet to commemorate the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated on November 1 and 2. The members satirically depicted current events—both mundane and sensational—with rich illustrations of calaveras (animated skeletons, directly translated as “skulls”) laid out in a newspaper format. TGP artists carried on the tradition of creating calavera sheets for the Día de los Muertos from their graphic predecessors Manuel Manilla (c. 1830–1895) and José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913), who used complementary images and texts to humorously address difficult political realities.

The 1942 broadsheet took up the theme of calaveras estranguladoras (strangling calaveras). For the cover, Alfredo Zalce created the top image of Truck Drivers and Shopkeepers who strangle consumers with their prices; below, Leopoldo Méndez portrayed the recently arrested serial killer and media sensation Gregorio Cárdenas Hernández (1915–1999). Méndez contributed the full-page back image as well, a representation of Soviet military commander Semyon Timoshenko (1895–1970) alongside a text titled "Corrido de Stalingrado." The corrido (ballad) was a favorite narrative device in TGP broadsides, with these publications using the folk storytelling technique to communicate the news in rhyming stanzas.


For more information see the catalogue entry by Rachel Kaplan in Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany, 2022, pp. 112–14.

Provenance
Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City, 1942; Dr. Jules Heller (1919–2007), Scottsdale, Arizona, 1947; LACMA, 2003.
Selected Bibliography
  • Kaplan, Rachel, and Erin Sullivan Maynes. Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2022.
Selected Exhibition History
  • Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany. October 29, 2022 - July 22, 2023
  • Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany. October 29, 2022 - July 22, 2023