ATALANTE III / CACHORRA DEL MAL, woodcut, Irving Herrera 2009

A brutal and poetic image of bodily resistance — Herrera’s ATALANTE III binds and bares with ritual clarity.

With ATALANTE III, Irving Herrera pushes his series into rawer terrain: a masked figure, topless and staring upward, is cinched across the chest with black bands that distort the phrase CÁCHORRA DEL MAL — a possible alias or alter ego, turned into both costume and constraint. The mask here resembles a lightning-bolt: jagged, confrontational, cosmic.

The text surrounding the oval frame shifts again, like a ring announcement or a political cry, the phrase reclaims space and power. Behind the figure, soft yellow roses float like ghosts against a stark black field.

Herrera’s carving is as precise as ever: the skin becomes a map of violence and assertion, each line recording pressure, age, defiance. The composition is anchored by the subject’s hands — gnarled, monumental — clutching the border as if ready to rip through the frame.

Signed and numbered 5/10, printed in 2009 on cotton paper, this piece is part of Herrera’s most iconic and limited body of work, acquired directly from the artist’s studio in Oaxaca.

Technical Sheet

• Object: Woodcut print (framed)
• Title: ATALANTE III / CACHORRA DEL MAL
• Artist: Irving Herrera
• Date: 2009
• Technique / Printing Method: Woodcut with screen-printed background
• Medium / Materials: Black and pale yellow ink on cotton paper
• Edition: 5/10
• Signed: Yes (pencil, lower margin)
• Framing: Black wooden frame with glass
• Dimensions: 112 × 76 cm (sheet)
• Condition: Excellent
• Provenance: Direct from artist’s studio, Oaxaca