Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Preview image of work. graphite, ink and gouache on grey paper, Mater Dolorosa 32720

2017.8.3

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Mater Dolorosa

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Artist

Frederico Castellon (Spain, 1914 - 1971)

Title

Mater Dolorosa

Creation Date

1938

Century

mid-20th century

Dimensions

18 x 11 5/8 in. (46 x 30 cm)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

graphite, ink and gouache on grey paper

Credit Line

Gift of halley k harrisburg, Class of 1990, and Michael Rosenfeld

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2017.8.3

As a recent immigrant to Brooklyn from Spain, which in 1938 was being torn apart by Civil War, Federico Castellon was especially perceptive of the danger of racism, xenophobia, and right-wing intimidation. Referring to well-established Catholic iconography of Mary in sorrow over the dead body of her son, the young artist drew a tortured naked male figure that is caressed by a woman in white, flowing garb. The man is identified as a victim of an act of cruel bigotry with three letters sliced into his chest, "KKK." The vehemently foreshortened figures and animated folds of the draperies make the drawing especially disconcerting. Diego Rivera had discovered Castellon in the early 1930s and recommended him for a fellowship to study art in Spain. When Castellon returned from Spain because of the outbreak of the war, he exhibited successfully in New York and became for a time an important member of surrealist art circles.