Canto ingenuo

Date: 1931

Original medium: Ink drawings

Published in: Enrique Othon Díaz, Canto ingenuo: La escuela rural. (Mexico City, 1931)

References: Information to be added

Commentary:  In 1931 Méndez created a dramatic, cheerful woodcut illustration for the cover of a little book of poetry that extolled the virtues of rural schools in Mexico. Canto Ingenuo: la Escuela Rural (Innocent Song: the Rural School), by Enrique Othon Díaz, included poems about the revolutionary role of the rural schoolteacher, and emphasized leftist values. It includes, for example “Clase de Religión,” a poem with the anti-religious line, “There is no god but work…”  Méndez’s composition followed Stridentist conventions. The dramatic blocky lettering, the ingenious geometric design in black, red and beige, the animated, simplified figures and repeated lines drawn at a tilted angle are all characteristics of Stridentist graphics. Here, though, he depicts the students of the rural school with a child-like optimism that corresponds to Othon Díaz’s naïve poetry. (Deborah Caplow)

Catalogue record number: 872