Echo of a Scream
David Alfaro Siqueiros
Mexican, 1896–1974
1937
An enamel-on-wood painting in which Siqueiros deploys a monstrous, doubled image of a screaming child to stage a visceral protest against war, oppression, and human suffering.
You are hit by a hulking, bronze-like infant head whose gaping mouth contains a smaller, writhing child draped in red, both hovering over a chaotic field of twisted metal and rubble that reads like an apocalyptic landscape.
A defining work of political modernism, it exemplifies Siqueiros’s experimental use of industrial materials and cinematic composition to extend Mexican muralism’s social critique into a new, internationally influential anti‑war visual language.
Medium
Enamel on wood
Dimensions
48 x 36" (121.9 x 91.4 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Edward M. M. Warburg
Accession
633.1939
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
