- Title
- Struggle against the Instigators of a New War in Favor of Peace (Lucha contra los provocadores de una nueva guerra y en favor de la paz)
- Date Made
- 1948
- Medium
- Linocut
- Dimensions
- 13 1/8 × 15 7/8 in. (33.34 × 40.32 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2003.92.55
- Collecting Area
- Latin American Art
- Curatorial Notes
Leopoldo Méndez made this linocut for a collective portfolio of ten prints created by artists of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP; People’s Print Workshop) in honor of the tenth anniversary of the Confederación de Trabajadores de América Latina (CTAL; Confederation of Latin American Workers). Founded shortly after the TGP in 1938 by Mexican labor leader Vicente Lombardo Toledano (1894–1968), CTAL expanded the Mexican fight for workersʼ rights across Latin America and initiated partnerships with trade unions throughout the Americas. The TGP presented the portfolio during CTAL’s third general congress and hosted a reception for the international delegates. In this print Méndez depicts a worker who carries the flag of the Frente Sindical Mundial (FSM; World Federation of Trade Unions) in one hand and holds back a bloated skeleton in the other. Wearing a top hat that reads “Wall Street,” the skeleton is a grotesque representation of capitalism, threatening the personification of Peace (Paz) as she kneels against a cross bearing her name.
Rachel Kaplan, 2023
- Provenance
Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City, 1948; Dr. Jules Heller (1919–2007), Scottsdale, Arizona; LACMA, 2003.
