Galloping Death

In 2007, artist, curator, and educator Artemio Rodríguez was invited to organize an exhibition on contemporary Mexican printmaking for Highpoint Center for Printmaking. His show, “Graphic Reality: Mexican Printmaking Today, ” was part of a series of exhibitions that explored the current state of printmaking in countries outside the United States. During his stay in Minneapolis, Rodríguez produced Galloping Death, a collaboratively created linoleum cut printed as a composite from 16 relief blocks carved by participants in a lecture demonstration of Rodriquez’s work and later printed by Highpoint staff. Based on one of Rodríguez’s earlier relief prints, the calavera (from the Spanish word for “skull”) imagery is part of Mexico’s strong graphic tradition exemplified in the work of José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913), a prominent figure in the development of modern Mexican printmaking.