Printmaker José Guadalupe Posada

Unknown Fame

José Guadalupe Posada created famous calaveras we see today

ONE OF MEXICO’S MOST CELEBRATED ARTISTS WAS A PRINTMAKER, a common man who died without means, his body interred in an unmarked grave. Yet, José Guadalupe Posada reached his countrymen through perhaps more than 20,000 images documenting nearly every aspect of life.

As Mexico modernized in the late 19th century, its bustling capital was besieged with published materials to satisfy the growing metropolis and its budding

ON VIEW

JOSÉ GUADALUPE POSADA: LEGENDARY PRINTMAKER OF MEXICO

Through May 23, 2021

Left: José Guadalupe Posada (engraver), Antonio Vanegas Arroyo (publisher), Gran fandango y francachela (Dancing and Revelry), ca. 1900s, type-metal engraving, The Posada Art Foundation

Opposite top: Collaborators: José Guadalupe Posada, Art Hazelwood, Jim Nikas, and Marsha Shaw, Produced at Misión Grafica, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, La Calavera 99% (The 99 percent Skull), 2012, serigraph on paper, The Posada Art Foundation

Opposite bottom: José Guadalupe Posada (engraver) Antonio Vanegas Arroyo (publisher), El purgatorio (Purgatory), ca. 1900s, Broadside, double fullsheet, type-metal engraving, The Posada Art Foundation

middle class, intelligentsias, and thousands of new residents relocating from the countryside. Employed by the visionary publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, Posada created expressive images reflecting and informing the transitioning culture of Mexico City’s residents. Posada’s sometimes satirical skeletons, or calaveras, have become the most iconic and celebrated figures from his prints.

“Posada engaged with the visual language of the time,” says Curator of Art Josie Lopez, Ph.D. “Modernism was developing. Mexico City was becoming cosmopolitan, on par with Paris and London.” But there was a push and pull between the global and the quintessentially Mexican, Lopez notes, and Posada was trying to capture the identity of the city based on that dichotomy. He was an inspiration to Diego Rivera, because Posada was illustrating local stories, some steeped in tradition and ritual in a time when the government itself was more interested in the metropolitan view of Mexico City.

Posada’s art lampooned politicians, recorded vivid images of the Mexican Revolution, inspired Mexico's famed Taller de Gráfica Popular to use art for social causes, helped the Cuban Revolution succeed, and later, adorned concert tickets for the Grateful Dead. Today, we see his calaveras during Day of the Dead.

Decades after his death, art historians and artists continue to recognize Posada’s cultural contributions, reflecting not only the spirit of Mexican identity in his time and ours but imparting a universal perspective extending well beyond the borders of his native Mexico.

José Guadalupe Posada, Placa para grabados, Gran fandango (Printing Plate, Grand Fandango), ca. 1900s, lead engraving, The Posada Art Foundation José Guadalupe Posada (artist), Antonio Vanegas Arroyo (publisher), D. Francisco I. Madero, published 1912, Broadside, fullsheet, zinc etching, The Posada Art Foundation