Matthew
Medlin
Dr.
Eric Smith
Freshman
Seminar
Jose Guadalupe Posada
Jose
Guadalupe Posada was a great artist even though his work wasn’t acknowledged
until after his death. He was known most for his engravings and printings of
skeletons. He enjoyed using skeletons because it represented that all people
are the same but we are made different by our cultural, finance, and racially
profiles placed upon us by our own society. His calaveras are copied all
throughout Mexico to represent “Dia de los Muertos” which translated
is “The Day of the Dead”. Posada got his
start in the art world by making political satire making fun of the dictator
like leaders where he worked. He used his skeletons to portray them to show
that although the held the power in the area and controlled many of the
businesses that operated in the town, that they are on the same level as all
the workers that they control. In a joking way he described that when we all
die we all turn into the same thing, a skeleton.
From
his wide use of skeletons he gain a lot of popularity through the Mexican
culture and their Day of the Dead festival that occurs every year from October
31st through November 2nd. The holiday known as the Day
of the Dead you’d think that it would be a depressing event but there is
laughter and celebrations. Due to the light heartedness of the festival that
acknowledges the dead Posadas art fit right in with its joking mood while using
symbols of death. With those fitting together so well many of Posada’s pieces
can be seen adorning the street of Mexico during the Day of the Dead
celebrations. Many of his works focused more on the bad things that show up in
life. “Posada’s interest centered on such fantastic and unsavory aspects
of life as murders, robberies, bullfights, political scandals, and illicit love
affairs” (Cordes).
Posada had
many famous artworks such as The Folk Dance Beyond the Grave,
Calavera
of Don Quixote, and Calavera from Oaxaca. Those are just
a few of the pieces that he is well known for and are seen all through Mexico
during the celebrations, but his most know piece is the La Catrina. It depicts a
lady skeleton wearing a very fancy hat which can make you interpret that it’s a
woman of higher class who has money. Even though she has money and power we are
all the same in the end as under all the flesh and guts we are all skeletons.
The La
Catrina piece is so popular that during Dia de los Muertos you
can find statues in the front of the stores and also people tend to dress up as
lady Catrina. A lot of people can connect with this special piece, especially
in the poverty stricken areas of Mexico
as the face issues from the Mexican upper class.
Jose
Guadalupe Posada did a lot of his work in his earlier life just for it to be
recognized three years after is his death. His
masterpieces connect with many people in areas that are either under a
dictatorship style government or areas of poverty that don’t get the sort of
income as high class individuals. It shows that every man, woman, and child are
all equal. Whether that be in life or not we are all brought to the same level
in death.
Tonatiuh, D. (2015). Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras. Publishers
Weekly
Bateman, T. (2016). Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras Book Review.
School Library Journal
Springer, M. (2014). Celebrate The Day of the Dead with The Classic Skeleton Art of Jose
Posada. Retrieved from http://www.openculture.com/2014/11/the-classic-skeleton-art-of-jose-guadalupe-posada.html
No comments:
Post a Comment