Posada, José Guadalupe, 1852-1913

Mexican artist and printer, also folk illustrator and political cartoonist, and through which "an inarticulate public found expression." Influenced future Mexican artists such as Jose Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera.

From the description of Jose Guadalupe Posada collection, circa 1875-1913. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 503426888

Mexican engraver, known particularly for his caricatures of death.

From the description of Photographs, ca. 1900. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122571826

Biography

Born in poverty in 1852, Jose Guadalupe Posada became the "Printmaker to the Mexican People," an influence on future Mexican artists such as Orozco and Rivera, and is often compared to such icons as Goya and Daumier. Posada is labelled an artist, a folk illustrator and a political cartoonist; no matter how he is categorized, it is clear that, through his prolific career, "an inarticulate public found expression."

Posada left his small village of Aquascalientes, where he had attended a drawing academy, to become an apprentice lithographer in Mexico City. He had shown a talent for engraving, which he originally did on wood. In Mexico City, he opened a small shop where he did commercial illustrations. In 1887, he joined the Antonio Vanegas Arroyo Publishing House, doing illustrations for a wide variety of printed publications, many of which had editions in the thousands. Posada is credited with introducing the process of etching on zinc to Mexico, around 1895. The process offered Posada more freedom as a draftsman, and resulted in fast and prolific numbers of finished prints. The prints, which ranged from broadsides to chapbooks all had one thing in common - the emphasis was on the illustration created by Posada. Posada knew his intended audience well; most were poor, illiterate and enjoyed the sensational aspect of any story. Using well-known symbols, and with an uncanny journalistic sense, Posada was able to identify a hierarchy of interests for the common man: family, work, neighborhood, government, disasters, religion and the supernatural. His illustrations, which were always linked to a story, were graphic reports that read from left to right. Posada was a master of composition and chiaroscuro (dark/light) and his prints always convey a feeling of action and movement. He also expressed a love of character, which can be seen in his humorous and satirical Calaveras series. Many of his prints deal with basic issues confronting the common man, especially the theme of guilt and punishment. It is estimated that more than half of his work deals with sensational crimes, especially atrocities committed by women. His political drawings reveal a deep social consciousness; Posada was a moralist whose criticism was aimed at everyone, not just the obvious government officials. His personal and artistic integrity were well-known, even though he worked for much of his life in complete obscurity. He died in 1913 and was buried in a common grave.

Although he was considered a self-taught folk artist during his lifetime, Posada's importance was re-established by Mexico's political muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco in the 1920's. His work has been the focus of many museum exhibitions in Mexico and the United States. The collection at Stanford University is the largest holding of Posada's work in the country.

From the guide to the Posada, Jose Guadalupe, 1853-1913. Prints, ca. 1875-1913, (Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.)

Biographical Historical Note

José Guadalupe Posada was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 1852 and died in Mexico City in 1913. His life span thus encompasses the last half century of the Mexican struggle for independence from colonial powers and the establishment of a liberal government that would sign a democratic Constitution in 1917. It is frequently observed that Posada's work expresses the hopes and fears of the Mexican people during this time of social upheaval, and that Posada's work, prolific, widely disseminated and extremely popular, helped to educate a largely non-literate population about the urgent political issues of the day.

To a great extent a self-taught artist, Posada apprenticed, when he was not quite twenty years old, in the lithographic printing shop of Trinidad Pedrozo in Aguascalientes, where he illustrated the independent newspaper El Jicote . Forced to leave Aguascalientes for political reasons, Pedrozo and Posada went to León, where in 1876 Posada was put in charge of the printmaking shop and in 1884 given a position teaching lithography at a secondary school.

In 1888 Posada moved to Mexico City, where he worked for various newspapers, including La Patria Ilustrada . In 1890, Posada joined the staff of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo's publishing house, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. Before moving to Mexico City, Posada had produced woodcuts or lithographs, but now he began engraving on type metal and, after 1900, turned to relief etching on zinc. Working for Arroyo and other publishers as well, Posada produced prints for newspapers, broadsides, and chapbooks on a wide range of topics, including fortune-telling, pet care, love, crime, miracles, and politics. Most of these were printed on brightly colored paper and sold by strolling vendors throughout the country. It is estimated that in his forty year career, Posada produced over 20,000 engravings.

When they were very young, Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco visited Posada in his workshop and deeply admired him. Later Posada served as a model for the Mexican muralists and other artists, who emulated his use of an indigenous Mexican style, commitment to a populist art form, and explicit political content. In 1920, Jean Charlot, a French artist collaborating on a mural with Rivera, was intrigued by the broadsides sold on the streets that still bore Posada's prints. He was the first to publish articles about Posada's work, theorizing its relevance for Mexican modernists. Since then, a quantity of critical writings have proclaimed Posada Mexico's greatest printmaker.

From the guide to the José Guadalupe Posada prints, 1880-1943, (Getty Research Institute)