An Accident 1943

Leopoldo Méndez made this striking, graphic woodcut print, An Accident, at an unknown date. It’s a high contrast image, black ink carved out from a block and pressed onto paper. You get this feeling of immediacy because of the nature of woodcut as a process: its bold lines and rough textures that come from digging into the material. I’m really drawn to the figure of the worker tumbling headfirst, hands clasped in front, caught in an absurd, almost comical posture amid the rigid scaffolding and tools. The artist's hand feels present in every jagged line. This print reminds me of other politically engaged artists, like Kollwitz, who used printmaking to reach a wide audience. "An Accident" seems to speak to the precariousness of labor, but it also makes room for the unexpected, the accidental, suggesting that art, like life, is full of surprises. It’s this space for ambiguity, this tension between control and chance, that keeps me coming back to art again and again.