Photo: Michael T. Ricker
Concierto sinfónico de calaveras
Date: 1934
Medium: Wood engraving
Dimensions (cm.): 22.8 x 16.9
Alternate titles: Calaveras del mausoleo nacional
Published edition:
Number of individual 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 8 to right of signature. Sheet dimensions 24.4 x 19.2 cm.
Some impressions were printed posthumously.
Contemporary publication: Frente a Frente, noviembre 1934, cover
References: Exposición de Homenaje 351; included in Prignitz 402-426
Selected additional references (illustrated): Adès and McClean 2009, 63; Barajas 2012, 144; Campbell 2003, 52; Costa 2009, 55; Heller 1999, 9; Ittmann 2006, 161; Lear 2017, 177; Maples Arce 1970, pl. 12; Monsiváis et al. 2002, 65; Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes 1987, 23; Prignitz 1992, 30; Ricker et al, 79; Affron et al. 2016, 212; Williams [1988], 63.
Commentary: Méndez's 1934 wood engraving, Calaveras del Mausoleo Nacional (Calaveras of the National Mausoleum) appeared on the cover of the first issue of Frente a Frente, the periodical of the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (the League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists, LEAR). Méndez translated LEAR’s confrontational stance into visual terms, and reveals the current complexities of Mexican cultural politics. Méndez depicted the inauguration of the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) in Mexico City, using calaveras in the style of Posada. The event was a government-sponsored gala celebrating the completion of the extravagant Beaux-Arts building that had been under construction since 1904. Members of LEAR would have been opposed to the ostentatious luxury of the building and the elitist nature of the occasion. In the foreground two seated calaveras represent Rivera and Carlos Riva Palacio, the president of the newly formed Partido Nacional Revolucionario. They clap as they look over their shoulders at the viewer with open-mouthed grins. A calavera orchestra on stage plays to a calavera audience in the pit and the loges. The caption that appears to one side identifies the characters and setting, in case the viewer had any doubt: “Calaveras del Mausoleo Nacional” (“Calaveras of the National Mausoleum”), and the names Riva Palacio and Diego Rivera. In the caption, Riva Palacio says: “Get them out of here, gendarmes, (calling) those yelling nobodies,” while Rivera comments, “Bravo! 'cause they aren’t letting us enjoy our party in peace!”
At the time, Rivera was openly supporting Trotsky. Neither he nor his artist wife, Frida Kahlo, ever belonged to LEAR, and, increasingly isolated from other Mexican artists, Rivera continued to work on murals commissioned by the Calles-backed government. In May 1934 Siqueiros published “Rivera’s Counter-Revolutionary Road” in the American journal New Masses, condemning Rivera for his support of Trotsky, his adherence to the fresco medium (which Siqueiros thought was antiquated), his lack of technical inventiveness, and his relationships to his wealthy patrons. The stage was set, therefore, at the time of the publication of Frente a Frente, for a concentrated offensive against Rivera as a “counter-revolutionary” government collaborator. Méndez’s print represents LEAR’s militant approach to art and politics in its first phase (before the establishment of the Popular Front in Mexico and LEAR’s change of heart toward President Cárdenas.) The sectarian politics of the Mexican Left are in full play in Calaveras del Mausoleo Nacional.
Méndez wrote “IV Internacional” on Rivera’s forehead, referring to Trotsky’s Fourth Communist International, and “PNR” (Partido Nacional Revolucionario) on Riva Palacios. The dollar sign (also used for the peso) and swastika on Rivera’s and Rivas Palacio’s chairs implicate the two as reactionary capitalists. At their feet, in a scene reminiscent of works by Posada, a small calavera policeman, wearing jackboots and a black cap, menaces a working-class, calavera couple with his pistol, expelling them from the concert hall. Ironically, the music performed at this event was the Sinfonía Proletaria (Proletarian Symphony) by the composer Carlos Chávez. Chávez later became a member of LEAR, but at that time he was collaborating with the government in the inauguration ceremonies, and he is seen here conducting the orchestra. A notice displayed on the floor announces the program: “Today, The Sun, Proletarian Corrido, Tickets 25 pesos,” emphasizing the unfairness of charging a high price for a work with a supposedly proletarian theme. (Deborah Caplow)
Cataloging note: All but the earliest impressions show a vertical crack in the block, upper left.
Catalogue record number: 2