In the culture section a review of an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. The article is illustrated by an etching ' Train of death' made by Leopoldo Mendez, a Mexican artist. The etching was published in 1942 at a time when the Holocaust was only just starting and there were as yet no eye witness reports of what was happening. At that time his view of cattle trucks and guards and smoking chimney could only have been imagined. Yet somehow he managed to conjure a scene that later, less innocent, generations would instantly recognize. A mystery ?
11 comments:
True soothsayer, perhaps?
Thank you for bringing this artist and his prescience to light.
Vancouver Barbara
I've never heard of Mendez before.
It's eerily authentic isn't it ?
That is indeed a mystery. The clothing is of another culture, I think,but the faces seem to express the tragedy that is to come.
How bizarre the nouveau Le MOnde.
Wow! That's a bit chilling! Maybe he had a bit of a sixth sense...
He was tuned in.
Life imitating art ?
Yes, now you mention it, the clothing does look Latin .
Uncanny !
I'm intrigued! I'll definitely be heading to the AIC to view his work.
Could it depict something to do with the mexican revolution, which heavily featured the plight of peasants who worked with cattle, the railroad tracks were both used during the revolution and torn up and buildings,
including a mine, were burned?
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