The Symphonic Concert of Skeletons Concierto Sinfónico de Calveras

Date

after 1934

Creator

This image was first published as a cover for the journal Frente a Frente in 1934, while Méndez was still an active member of the LEAR [Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios]. Frente a Frente, which translates as "Head to Head," was a leftist journal started by the LEAR during Cárdenas’s presidency as a means of promoting art with a social message. The print shown here is a somewhat later edition that appeared as part of a series of images in one of Méndez’s portfolios. It is among the first examples in which Méndez recognizably employs [José Guadalupe] Posada’s iconography of the calavera to satirize the bourgeois class. In this instance, he uses the device to parody the inauguration of the Palacio de Bellas Arte in Mexico City, deriding the bourgeois excess of this historical event. Méndez depicts the muralist Diego Rivera as the calavera on the left and Carlos Riva Palacio, the president of the newly formed Partido Nacional Revolucionario, as the calavera on the right. The two men’s perceived dedication to capitalist culture is illustrated by the markings of a dollar (or peso) sign and a swastika, respectively, on the backs of their chairs. The program on the floor by Rivera’s foot translates to read, "Today, ‘The Sun’ Proletarian Series, tickets $25"; this inclusion draws attention to the inflated price of admission to the event, which was apparently intended for the middle class. from Costa, Para la Gente: Art, Politics and Cultural Identity of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Notre Dame, 2009)