Americas Collection
Jose Guadalupe Posada
José Guadalupe Posada, La Calavera,
black and white woodcut, 14 x 10 _ inches. Collection of the ASU Art Museum,
purchased with funds provided by the American Art Heritage Fund 1993.007.000.
About the Artist
There is a long tradition in Mexican art to lampoon saints and sinners alike.
Jose Guadalupe Posada (1851-1913) is renowned for his political and satirical
skeleton prints or calaveras (which literally means "skulls") that
criticized both the secular and the sacred. Many of Posada's calaveras
reflected the public's dissatisfaction with the corrupt regime of the dictator
Porfirio Diaz, while others poked fun at the everyday fears and concerns held
by ordinary people. Posada's skeletal scenes were used to illustrate mock
obituaries aimed at persons from all levels of society but Posada's most critical
calaveras disparaged the autocratic rule of Diaz and his unscrupulous upper-class
cronies. Posada's images also accompanied the lyrics to popular songs or revolutionary
ballads known as "corridos." Printed on inexpensive, brightly colored
paper and costing only a few centavos, these broadsheets were sold on street
corners to an audience that was largely illiterate. Those without the ability
to read could still grasp the meaning intended by the phony obituaries or
the rousing corridos through the benefit of Posada's expressive skeletal
forms.
The use of skeletal imagery in art dates from the pre-Hispanic civilizations
of Mesoamerica and later gained satirical meaning through popular prints executed
in nineteenth century Mexico. By virtue of its subject matter, imagery and
popular artistic medium, the artwork of Jose Guadalupe Posada represents a
form of caricature directly connected to the art and mind of Mexico's common
people. Posada was born in 1851 in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes. He
later became a teacher of the artistic print medium of lithography. In 1887
he moved to Mexico City where he worked as a newspaper illustrator until his
death in 1913. Always attempting to find a more rapid and efficient method
of reproducing his images for the masses, Posada experimented with different
types of print technology. Early on Posada employed a method known as wood
cutting by which he would carve his calavera images onto wooden blocks for
printing. Toward the end of his career, Posada discovered a way to use acid-resistant
ink to create free hand drawings on metal plates which were then "bitten"
or dissolved with acid so that only the drawn image stood out from the surface.
This process known as relief etching allowed Posada greater freedom of expression
and enabled him to print rather quickly, positive images composed of black
lines. These later calaveras are noticeable different in terms of style
and complexity from Posada's earlier wood cut ones.
Posada's illustrations appeared in many anti-Diaz newspapers, but he executed
the bulk of his illustrations for the populist publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo
who appears in a calavera dedicated to his honor. Posada's caricatures,
like the publications they appeared in, were instrumental in molding public
opinion against the dictator Diaz and contributed to his eventual overthrow
by the Mexican Revolution. The prints of Jose Guadalupe Posada also helped
to inspire the work of the revolutionary muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente
Orozco. Posada not only addressed the issues of a society in conflict prior
to the revolution, he perpetuated the role of art as an outlet for protest
within Mexican society.
Chris Ibarra, Curatorial Intern
Graduate student, Art History.
For further reading
Ades, Dawn. "Posada and the Popular Graphic Tradition." Art in Latin
America: The Modern Era, 1820-1980. Yale University Press, New Haven. 1989.
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA). Posada y La Prensa Illustrada:
Signos de Modernizacion y Resistencia. Mexico, D.F. 1996.
Masuoka, Susan. "Joking With Death: Skulls and Skeletal Forms, Common Elements
of Popular Art in Mexico." Print. vol. 38 May/June '84. P. 78-83.
Myers, Bernard S. "A Culture in Revolution." Mexican Painting in Our Time.
Oxford U. Press, New York 1956.
Carlos Macazaga Ramirez de Arellano and Cesar Macazaga Ordono, eds. Las
Calaveras Vivientes de Posada. Editorial Cosmo. 1977.
Rothstein, Julian. Posada: Messenger of Mortality. Redstone Press,
London. 1989.
Schmeckbebier, Laurence E. Modern Mexican Art. The U. of Minnesota
Press, Minneapolis. 1939.
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