Sachi Yanari-Rizzo, Curator of Prints & Drawings
José Clemente Orozco, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros are probably Mexico’s most famous mural and easel painters. Mexico has a strong graphic arts tradition, too, seen in the politically engaged work of José Guadalupe Posada and the printmaking collective Taller de Gráfica Popular (Popular Graphics Workshop, TGP). One of their members, Leopoldo Méndez, is the focus of today’s “Treasures from the Vault”.
Méndez showed early artistic promise at age 12 when his drawing of President Venustiano Carranza was published in the newspaper. He pursued a traditional, classical art foundation at the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City. Méndez studied painting and printmaking at Open Air Painting Schools in Chimalistac and Coyoacán that were more unconventional and experimental.
Méndez is best remembered for co-founding the printmaking workshop and collective named Taller de Gráfica Popular in 1937. He, Luis Arenal, Raúl Anguiano, and American expatriate Pablo O’Higgins envisioned creating work to benefit the people. The membership’s art tended to be politically motivated, with the intent to effect social change on the home front and internationally. The TGP offered printmaking facilities for their members, where they created prints, portfolios, illustrated books, and works individually, in collaboration, and for other leftist organizations. Méndez was adept at woodcut, linocut, and lithography, which he began to explore after the Taller secured a press. He was active with the collective until 1961.
The FWMoA’s Mexican People Portfolio was a collaboration between the TGP and Associated American Artists. Twelve prints by ten artists focused on the theme of the people and different locations around Mexico.
The title of Méndez’s lithograph is Grinding Maize. In the foreground, a woman is at work over a rectangular slab with legs, known as a metate, an ancient Mesoamerican tool made of basalt stone. Traditionally a woman crushes grain by moving a rounded, handheld stone (mano) back and forth across the metate.
Méndez’s life-long friend, O’Higgins, contributed the lithograph Brick Makers to the portfolio; the brick maker and his workspace comprise most of the composition. While labor is the subject of both, Méndez’s figures are proportionately small, drawing our attention to the row of large, thatched roof structures used to preserve maize. Similar buildings appeared earlier in Méndez’s woodcut “Cuando Nace un Hombre Todos los Animales se Alegran” Cuautla 1945 (When a Man Is Born All the Animals Rejoice). The corn granary (cuezcomatl or coscomate) was distinctive throughout the Morelos region in Mexico, but has since grown unpopular. Early use of this type of storage is documented in the Huexotzinco Codex of 1531.
Méndez’s cuezcomatl are impressive due to their large scale. He captures our interest through his rich range of tones and varied treatment of lines to describe the thick layers of straw for the diversely shaped roofs. The storage area is reminiscent of a large vessel set on a circular stone foundation. Corn kernels are poured in an opening in the roof, accessible through ladders. When needed, the corn can be collected through a circular hole closer to the base.
It is fitting that the artist focused on a traditional household tool and architectural form. After the Mexican Revolution (1910-20), the government under newly elected President Álvaro Obregón promoted a unified, national identity that embraced the artistic contributions of indigenous civilizations, including the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec. Discoveries at pre-Columbian archaeological sites further fueled enthusiasm.
Perhaps the enormity of the granaries remind us that grinding maize is only one element of the entire process. The three workers lead our eye back through the composition. One worker’s identity is concealed by the burdensome bundle of corn stalks carried. Corn stored in the granary can last for months, and potentially up to one year, which speaks to its importance as a food source.
Méndez valued how art could benefit society rather than for personal financial gain. As a result, his work was not as widely exhibited and publicized as many of his contemporaries. In 1971, Siqueiros honored the artist by painting Méndez’s portrait in a tribute to Mexico’s great artists of the 20th century, along with Dr. Alt, Orozco, Posada, Rivera, and Siqueiros himself in the Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros in Mexico City.
Make an appointment or stop by the Print & Drawing Study Center Tuesday-Friday 11am-3pm to see more of our works on paper!