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In one month, on November 2, it will be "El Dia de los Muertos" (the Day of the Dead), and Jose Guadalupe Posada, or Don Lupe as he was known to his friends, a poor but prolific printmaker, will come alive once again in the hearts and minds of the Mexican people.
No Day of the Dead celebration would be complete without a nod to that artist genius who turned death into an expression of vibrant life that refuses to die year after year. Without Posada there would be no sexy, stiff-necked "Catrina" figures (upper class ladies of the late nineteenth century) with their equally stiff escorts. Nor would there be those vibrant dancing skeletal figures or saucy female skulls in turn-of-the-century hats on the colorful "papel picada" (cut paper) that decorates the altars to celebrate the day. In fact, it would impossible to imagine a Day of the Dead market place, which always opens several weeks before the holiday, without these lively, irreverent bits of folk art.
It would also be hard to picture these characters in mini skirts or jeans. They are frozen in the era in which they first came to life, a tribute to the powerful influence Posada exerted in his time.
Skeletons were always a part of the day of the dead celebration, and many artists used them as symbols before Posada. However, it was Posada who gave life to these figures infusing them with energy and humor.
Andre Breton observed in his Anthology of Black Humor that humor doesn't appear in the visual arts tradition of the west except in some of the works of Goya and Hogarth. "The triumph of humor in its pure and full state," he wrote, "must be dated closer to our time and must recognize as its first genial artisan, the Mexican artist, Jose Guadalupe Posada…" Humor in modern art begins with Posada.
Besides his obvious humor, his figures have an expressionistic quality that goes beyond the ordinary visual or narrative reconstruction of an event. He was able to capture the essence of an incident, an awareness not yet exploited in the artists before him. His perception foretold a new philosophy, a new aesthetic. It predated the expressionist movement begun in Europe a number of years later.
Jose Guadalupe Posada has been referred to as the father of the muralist movement. Both Jose Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera have said that Posada was a determining influence in their careers and sense of aesthetics. For his influence on them and that whole generation of younger artists, he is recognized as one of the great precursors of the Mexican School of Modern Art. Although he died in 1913, he was thought of as a contemporary by these later talents. Even art history books have a hard time placing him in his time. He is often in a category by himself.
Though Posada's figures look deceptively simple,
Read the complete article . . . Plus view the photographs. |
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Miguel de Allende
