Portrait of Lenin, a hammer and sickle to either side of his head, printed in the newspaper 'El Machete' May (first fortnight)

Xavier Guerrero

1924 · Woodcut, letterpress (newspaper) on verso · Drawings and Prints

Xavier Guerrero served on the executive committee of the newspaper El Machete with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Responsible for its day-to-day operations, he decided on much of the content while also contributing his own striking visual material. This portrait was printed in the months following the death of Vladimir Lenin, the founding head of Soviet Russia’s government in 1917. He created a socialist state run by the Communist Party, and his inclusion in the pages of El Machete signals the political affiliation between Lenin’s ideology and the artists involved in the newspaper. Xavier Guerrero formaba parte del comité ejecutivo del periódico El Machete junto con Diego Rivera y David Alfaro Siqueiros. Era responsable de su día a día y decidía buena parte del contenido, además de aportar impactantes materiales visuales de su propia cosecha. Este retrato se imprimió en los meses posteriores a la muerte de Lenin, fundador y primer gobernante de la Rusia soviética en 1917. Lenin creó un Estado socialista dirigido por el Partido Comunista, y su inclusión en las páginas de El Machete demuestra la adhesión política de los artistas vinculados con el periódico a la ideología del líder soviético.

Artist

Xavier Guerrero

Date

1924

Medium

Woodcut, letterpress (newspaper) on verso

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Jean Charlot, 1929