Winner, A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book

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.