The Doctor and Death
The subject of this print is not entirely clear. The doctor seems to be handing two children over to Death. One child looks to the doctor, the other at Death, suggesting uncertainty about their fate. Are the doctor and Death somehow complicit, and what is the figure in the background pouring into a glass? As a printmaker, Mexiac was mainly concerned with the efficacy of prints to address social injustice and political oppression. During the 1950s, he worked with like-minded artists at the Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico City.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Doctor and Death
- Artist: Adolfo Mexiac (Mexican, Cuto de la Esperanza, Michoacán 1927–2019 Cuernavaca)
- Publisher: Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City
- Date: ca. 1950s
- Medium: Linocut
- Dimensions: Sheet: 19 1/2 × 17 1/8 in. (49.5 × 43.5 cm)
Image: 13 3/16 in. × 11 in. (33.5 × 28 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Richard and JoAnn Edinburg Pinkowitz, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.69.39
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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