Jose Guadalupe Posada was a Mexican cartoonist born in the State of Aguascalientes on February 2nd 1952. Posada’s ideas were clearly progressive, and somewhat bohemian. He is well recognized worldwide for his use of Calaveras (Skeletons) to depict the Mexican society of his times.
Posada’s Calaveras were used to illustrate a political point of view and they were typically witty images of skeletons dressed with fine clothes and jewelry. One of his most famous works is the “Calavera Catrina”, which was primarily meant to mock the pretentious upper class of his time. The Catrina, a snooty lady wearing the big fancy hat decorated with flowers and feathers is a good example of Posada’s criticism of the high society who at the end could not take anything with them.
Posada was more than a cartoonist. His progressive ideas influenced some of the most well known Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera. In fact, it was Diego Rivera who discovered Posada’s work and incorporated it into one of his murals. Rivera along with Jean Charlot (a French artist) brought back Posada’s work from obscurity and into the international arena.
Today in Mexico, Posada’s imagines of the Calaveras have become accepted in the Mexican folklore and now these imagines are used during the celebration of the Day of the Dead “Dia de los muertos”.
 |
| Giant Calavera de La Catrina in the Zocalo Photo by Randall Sheppard |
No comments:
Post a Comment