Strange Funeral c. 1937

Donato Rico made this black and white print titled "Strange Funeral," but we don’t know exactly when. Imagine Rico, grappling with this block, carving away to reveal the stark contrasts of the image. There's a lot going on here. Look at the way the figures are rendered, almost like they're caught between a dream and some kind of social realist nightmare. I wonder if Rico was thinking about the theater? There's a stage-like quality to the composition, with different scenes unfolding in layers. The mourners in the foreground, the nude in the background, the workers raising their fists. What's the story here? What does it all mean? I feel the artist is inviting us to contemplate the human condition, its complexities, and its contradictions. His way of seeing and thinking asks us to question what’s real and what’s imagined. What is the relationship between life and death? What is the meaning of love and loss? It’s about these big questions.