Chiclero
Date: 1937
Medium: Woodcut
Dimensions (cm.): 17.5 x 12.5
Alternate titles: Chicleros; Tierra de chicle
Published edition:
Number of impressions unknown.
Reprinted in 1943 in portfolio 25 Prints of Leopoldo Méndez: 100 impressions in numbered portfolios, 50 of them on China paper (described as “special imported chinese stock”), plus 3 impressions in unnumbered portfolios. Each impression signed in graphite, lower right, and annotated 15, lower right corner of sheet. Sheet dimensions 24.41 x 9.2 cm.
Contemporary publication: Ramón Beteta, 1937 Tierra del chicle (Mexico City: DAPP), cover (image reproduced at 10.6 x 14.7 cm.).
References: Exposición de Homenaje 399, Méndez INBA 91
Commentary: Méndez created this image for the cover of the 1937 Tierra del chicle (Land of Chicle), by Ramón Beteta, using a surreal composition to express an emotional response to oppression. The book concerns agricultural conditions among the chicle workers in the southern state of Quintana Roo. Méndez’s print was a dramatic response that accompanied an objective account. The large head of a man, with staring eyes, grows out of a twisted chicle tree. Little figures on either side attack and struggle as an overseer strikes a defenseless figure to the left of the tree. (Deborah Caplow)
Catalogue record number: 49