Lo que puede venir (What May Come),

1945

Created two decades and 6,000 miles apart, these works by the anti-fascist artists Grosz and Méndez address attempts to foresee the future amid political upheaval. Grosz, a member of the far-left Communist Party of Germany (KPD), was known for his sketches satirizing contemporary society in the wake of World War I. This sketch depicts a figure in a white shirt, shorts, and kerchief: the uniform of the Soviet youth organization the Young Pioneers. Though the figure’s shirt proclaims “Ich bin Prophet” (“I am the prophet’”) and he gestures confidently, the boards nailed over his eyes indicate his inability to perceive the world around him, much less the future.

Méndez cofounded the leftist Mexican printmaking collective Taller de Gráfica Popular (the Popular Graphic Arts Workshop), where he engraved Lo que puede venir. In 1945, as Mexican soldiers were fighting the Axis powers alongside other Allied troops in World War II, Méndez adapted established symbols to warn of the ills that might come under Christian fascism. In the foreground of the engraving, an artist—a self-portrait of Méndez—lies atop an open book, pencil at the ready, surrounded by a harrowing vision: The eagle associated with Aztec legends of the founding of Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City) is pinned to a cross in the form of a swastika set amid cacti, as a snake binds its talons and rears back in threat. In the background, soldiers and clergy march on the capital city.