Lithography, Woodcuts, and Dancing Skeletons: Mexican Prints at the Met Museum

Against a gray-tinted slate blue wall, a collection of dozens of two-toned lithographs and woodcuts boldly stand out. Mexican Prints at the Vanguard, which opened in early September 2024 and is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 2025, is a rich display of Mexican art spanning from the mid-1500s through the 1940s. Exhibiting a variety of works that together tell the story of one of Mexico’s most famous cultural offerings, the Met’s exhibition presents Mexican printmaking as an outlet for both traditional motifs and socio-political commentary. 

Included in the Met’s collection are a few of the quintessential skeleton prints by Jose Guadalupe Posada—rhythmic statements in black and white. Broadsid: on recto skeletons riding bicycles; on verso skeletons buying and selling printed images etc (ca. 1895) is both a tremendous instance of traditional Mexican motifs (skeletons, an important stylistic feature of Día de los Muertos celebrations) and, through Posada’s depiction of the press as skeletons riding bicycles towards death, a blazing satire of Mexican politics in the 1890s. 

The exhibition follows a chronological order and is accompanied by concise yet informative text blocks. The first prints shown are religious woodcuts and illuminated civil documents strongly printed on fringed silk. One such artwork is Baltasar Troncoso y Sotomayor’s Thesis proclamation of José Vicente Maldonado y Trespalacios. An image of the Virgin Mary hangs in the top center of the woodcut, surrounded by an intricate border of fanned designs, calling papel picados to mind—the traditional Aztec art form of chiseled spirit figures. 

A sharp delineation in the world of printmaking came in the mid-1800s, when the art of lithography, or chemical press-printing, was first introduced to Mexico. At this point, printmaking became much more duplicable and accessible, becoming one of the most common modes of public communication. Pieces from this era range from calls to action to the daily news—in one 1902 newspaper illustration accompanying an article about a recent murder, a man walks into a room to find his daughter beheaded. 

Another fascinating work from this period comes in the form of a newspaper clipping, a masthead from El Machete, taken from a socialist newspaper in 1924. Emblazoned across the top of a yellowing newsprint page, a red and black design that seems to emanate sheer willpower reads “El Machete.” In this instance, as well as countless others throughout the exhibit, the cultural power of simple prints is utilized to raise awareness and enact change. By using traditional motifs in novel situations, artists were able to appeal to a collective cultural identity.

Perhaps the most visually interesting is the lithograph Great Builders by Jean Charlot. Curving figures carry shaded isometric blocks towards a pyramid mid-construction, paying homage to the land’s Aztec past. Great Builders is not only expertly executed, but it also reflects the trends toward abstraction and detail in Mexican printmaking that emerged in the 1920s. A more true-to-life take on this artistic style is present in Diego Rivera’s 1932 lithograph Emiliano Zapata and his horse. 

In the same vein, the exhibition concludes with similarly and increasingly abstracted prints—as the 20th century progresses, sharp, stark woodcuts give way to detailed lithographs and vibrant murals. Carlos Mérida’s Matisse-like woodcut Abstract composition (1936) is only a few steps away from his silkscreened A man from Saltillo in the state of Coahuila (1945). 

It’s easy to glean the relevance of Mexican printmaking in art history, and Mexican Prints at the Vanguard does an excellent job of showcasing its unique story and style.