Leopoldo Mendez: Revolutionary Art and the Mexican Print (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) (Joe R. ... in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) [Hardcover]

Deborah Caplow (Author)

Book Description

Series: Joe R. and Teresa Lozana Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture | Publication Date: December 1, 2007

Leopoldo Méndez (1902-1969) was one of the most distinguished printmakers of the twentieth century, as well as one of Mexico's most accomplished artists. A politically motivated artist who strongly opposed injustice, fascism, and war, Méndez helped form and actively participated in significant political and artistic groups, including the Estridentistas in the 1920s and the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR) and the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP) in the 1930s. To champion Mexican art and artists, Méndez also founded and directed the Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana, a highly respected art book publishing company. Leopoldo Méndez is the first book-length work in English on this major Mexican artist. Profusely illustrated with over one hundred and fifty images, it examines the whole sweep of Méndez's artistic career. Deborah Caplow situates Méndez within both Mexican and international art of the twentieth century, tracing the lines of connection and influence between Méndez and such contemporaries as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and printmaker José Guadalupe Posada. Caplow focuses on the period in the 1930s when Méndez and his fellow artists in LEAR and TGP played a key role in the development of a Mexican political art movement and a modern Mexican cultural identity. She also describes how Méndez created a body of powerful anti-Fascist images before and during World War II and subsequently collaborated with artists from Mexico and around the world on political printmaking, in addition to publishing books and creating prints for films by the eminent Mexican cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Caplow presents a valuable survey of Mendez's career, with nine chapters following the artist from his formation at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City to the last works executed before his death in 1969...offers many hitherto unpublished insights into Mendez's career and TGP operations...the book is richly illustrated. Its journalistic writing style, periodically punctuated by romantic defences of the artist, is easily accessible for all audiences...Caplow's book makes a valuable contribution to the scholarship on Mexican printmaking." Kelly Donahue-Wallace, Print Quarterly, XXV, 2008

About the Author

Deborah Caplow is a lecturer in art history at the University of Washington, where she teaches a variety of courses, including Mexican art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292712502
• ISBN-13: 978-0292712508
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,382,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent coverage of revolutionary Mexican printmaking, September 8, 2008

By 

Lincoln Cushing "Docs Populi" (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leopoldo Mendez: Revolutionary Art and the Mexican Print (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) (Joe R. ... in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) (Hardcover)

Deborah Caplow's excellent book goes a long way toward informing us about the explosive combination of art, artists, politics, and printmaking in Mexico during the mid-1900s. This book was researched with care, and includes numerous interviews that bring the immediacy of participants voices into the mix. It is also meticulously footnoted, with an extensive bibliography and index. The aggregate whole of this book--the illustrations, research, and original analysis--makes it an essential resource for anyone trying to understand the dynamic and stirring history of Mexico's graphic art tradition.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 4 star text, 2 star pictures, April 26, 2011

By 

Karl Janssen (Olathe, KS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Leopoldo Mendez: Revolutionary Art and the Mexican Print (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) (Joe R. ... in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) (Hardcover)

Leopoldo Méndez is one of the greatest printmakers of the twentieth century, yet in the U.S. he doesn't even have his own Wikipedia entry! From the early 1920s to the mid-1960s he produced a prolific output of beautiful and powerful woodcut prints which illustrated the plight of the Mexican working class, demanded political and social reform, condemned Fascism, and promoted peace. He definitely merits a book that will bring deserved recognition to his impressive body of work. This book is only moderately successful in achieving that goal. The main problem with this book is one of design and execution. This is a 6 x 9 scholarly monograph masquerading as a 9 x 12 coffee table book. As a coffee table book, it fails; as a monograph, it's quite successful.

The book is generously illustrated, but only about half the illustrations are works by Méndez. The rest are photographs or artworks by his associates, or those who influenced him. The selection of works by Méndez is very good. Unfortunately, they're not reproduced very well. Although this is a big book, 9 x 12 inches, the illustrations are relatively small; almost all are 4.5 inches wide or less. Instead of scanning the woodcut prints as black and white line art, to accentuate the stark contrast of light and dark in Méndez's work, the prints are scanned as grayscale, which adds a dull gray halftone pattern over the entire image, killing the contrast and in some cases interfering with the fine detail of Méndez's line work. There is a color section in which the images are larger and, for the most part, of better quality, but it's only 16 pages long.

The main attraction of this book is its text. This is the most detailed examination of Méndez in the English language, and perhaps in any language. Caplow goes beyond Méndez to provide an overview of the entire history of art in Mexico following the Revolution. While this gives us valuable perspective on the era in which Méndez lived and worked, at times it makes him seem like a supporting character in his own biography. The depth of detail in this book is truly impressive. In addition to mining every printed source on Méndez, Caplow also interviewed several of his colleagues. The only fault I can find with the writing is that Caplow feels the need to describe in detail every one of the hundreds of illustrations, even to the point of often stating the obvious.

If you want to see big, beautiful reproductions of Méndez's work, get your hands on a copy of Leopoldo Méndez: Oficio de Grabar, by Francisco Reyes Palma. If you want to learn everything you can about Méndez--his life, his art, and his times--Caplow's book is a rewarding read.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Book!, February 25, 2011

By 

Peter P. Fuchs (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leopoldo Mendez: Revolutionary Art and the Mexican Print (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) (Joe R. ... in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) (Hardcover)

I just checked this book out of the library because the super-strong Stan Kaplan TGP linocut I recently bought at an an estate sale is featured in the book as a great example of "obreismo". We have seen a number of shows all over in museums of TGP prints and graphics, and I am happy to have gotten one that I really like. This book tells a fascinating tale in detail, with sharp reproductions. What a special moment for the visual arts, where visual force and incisiveness collided with a very exercised and over-the-top political valences. Black and white never looked so good somehow!