Author Description

From the Stanford University Libraries is the exhibition catalogue José Guadalupe Posada and the Taller de Gráfica Popular: Mexican Popular Prints. This show celebrated the work of two Mexican graphic art giants: Posada (1852-1913), perhaps best known for his calaveras (skeletal caricatures) that appear during the día de los muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations beginning each year on November 1, and artists of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP, Workshop for Popular Graphic Art), which formed in 1937. Born in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico, Posada demonstrated an early talent for drawing, taught lithography, and made a living as an illustrator of magazines, books, and commercial products. In 1888 he moved to Mexico City to join the printing shop of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. It is there that Posada produced thousands of illustrations for popular broadsheets, some dedicated to sensationalistic themes ranging from heinous murders to natural and man-made disasters, and others to daily life in turn-of-the-century Mexico. Posada's imagery was aimed at the urban working classes, shedding light on the struggles of the underdog and the downtrodden while exposing the habits of Mexico's middle and upper class members to his sharp satirical wit. Posada created the bulk of these broadsheets under the regime of the Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz, keeping his satire in check to minimize the risk censorship or imprisonment.