El fin del zopilote
Date: 1944
Medium: Wood engraving
Dimensions (cm.): 18.0 x 14.0
Alternate titles: El zopilote ahorcado; Zopilote ahorcado; La ejecución del zopilote
Published edition:
Incidentes melódicos del mundo irracional, p. 59. Illustrated book published by La Estampa Mexicana and printed at the Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, 1944, in an edition of 1,200, 178 of which were numbered. Promotional materials stated that the images were printed from the original blocks.
Méndez 25 prints: portfolio of 25 images from Incidentes melódicos, hand-printed at the TGP on china paper, in an edition of 25 numbered portfolios, 7 unnumbered portfolios. Published by La Estampa Mexicana, 1945. This image is number 24 in the portfolio. Each impression signed in graphite, lower right, and annotated 24 in graphite, lower right corner.
Additional impressions, signed and unsigned, were printed outside the edition. Number of impressions unknown.
Contemporary publication: Incidentes melodicos del mundo irracional. See above.
References: Exposición de Homenaje 488 (illus.); Prignitz 490; included in Prignitz 498-523
Commentary: El fin del zopilote is a grim reminder of the fate that awaits evil-doers. In the foreground, Don Zopilote hangs from a dead tree in darkness, while in the distance the campesinos celebrate his demise. The crowd is quite individualized, as in other of Méndez’s depictions of masses of people.The image of hanging was particularly potent in Mexico, as summary executions by hanging were extremely common during the Mexican Revolution. Several well-known images of these events exist, among them, documentary photographs from the Revolution, and most notably a Posada print, Campesino ahorcado (Campesino Hanged), itself based on a photograph. These images would have been familiar to Méndez. (Deborah Caplow)
Catalogue record number: 529