Dance of the Tlacololeros from Dances of Mexico
Maker and role
Artist: Carlos Mérida, Guatemalan, 1891-1984
Year
1939
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Object detail
Media/Materials
Lithograph
Measurements
14 1/2 x 11 3/4in (36.8 x 29.8cm)
Credit line
Gift of Susan Toomey Frost
Accession number
2014.31.4
Object type
Department
Location
Further information
The theme of this dance, performed ceremonially in the state of Guerrero, is land hunger. It is dramatized in seven sequences that are stirring miracles of human feeling. Successively the dancers search for land, find it, share it out, prepare their farming implements, burn down the brush, seed the soil (symbolically beating it), leave, and then return for the harvest. The dance-rhythms are slow and solemn, and the costumes, made of rough sack-cloth, heighten the austere nobility of the spectacle. Red masks, roughly carved, provide the only accent. The rhythm is carried by drums and flutes.
Subject period
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