Corrido de Stalingrado

Date: 1942

Medium: Linocut

Dimensions (cm.): Information to be added

Alternate titles: Calavera de la 2a guerra mundial; Timoshenko

Published edition: Unknown

Contemporary publication: 

References: Prignitz 986

Selected additional references (illustrated): Information to be added

Commentary:  Méndez produced the print for the Taller’s yearly series of calaveras, probably in October of 1942.  Méndez surely based this work on several prints of Posada; it is a striking combination of Posada’s animated Calavera of Don Quijote and Soldadera zapatista, both of which feature calaveras on horseback. The former depicts skeletons riding over a scattered group of smaller calaveras and the latter portrays a calavera woman soldier advancing at full speed toward the viewer. The Soviet general, a terrifying skeleton on a skeleton horse, tramples over the Germans, also skeletons, who lie in various poses of defeat, under the hoofs of the horse. The robotic qualities of the defeated calavera Germans lend a dehumanizing effect to these figures, and the rider recalls the horseman of war from the Apocalypse. Méndez’s Corrido de Stalingrado (called Timoshenko in El libro negro) was used as an illustration in El libro negro del terror nazi en Europa (Mexico City: El Libro Libre, 1943). (Deborah Caplow)

Catalogue record number: 74