JG POSADA Engraving PEQUENO ADIVINADORCITO #7 1895 |
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Considered to be one of the best engravers in Mexico´s history. He is regarded by some as a Mexican version Honoré Daumier for his merciless satire of burgeois life. He has also been compared to Aubrey Beardsley, who illustrated Oscar Wilde's Salomé, and political cartoonists as Herbert Block (Herblock), who took on McCarthyism and Stalinism.
Posada was born in Aguascalientes on February 2, 1852. His education fell on the hands of his brother Cirilo who as a country schoolteacher taught him to read, write and draw. He started drawing and copying religious images at an early age and worked in a ceramic workshop before learning the art of engraving. In 1866 he started working as an apprentice at the Taller de Trinidad Pedroza where he learned lithography and engraving. This experience helped him make a few satirical illustrations for "El Jocote" magazine.
In 1872 his satires of Jesús Gómez Portugal (a regional boss or cacique) became the first to produce reprecussions. Gómez forced Posada and Pedroza to move to Leon Guanajuato where they started to produce own lithographies and prints in wood that would illustrate matchboxes, documents and books.
After a flood destroyed most of León in 1887 he decided to move to Mexico City, where he went to work for Irineo Paz, grandfather of Nobel Prize winning author Octavio Paz. He opened two additional workshops and also drew political cartoons for many periodicals. his dedication to his work became legendary.
In 1880 he became the head artist at the Taller Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, where he made thousands of illustrations for this press that produced inexpensive literature for the lower classes. They printed various newspapers as well as comedies, farces, thrillers, songbooks and histories of saints and historical figures. He also made illustrations and political caricature for other editorials like "Argos", "La Patria", "El Ahuizote" and "El Hijo del Ahuizote", where they would oppose the current government run by Porfirio Díaz.
Posada worked closely with Manuel Manilla (engraver) and Constancio Suarez (poet) to produce rich editorials for their fight against Diaz´ dictatorship. Posada and Manilla became the geratest promoters of the tradition of the Day of the Dead, celebrated November 2. Posada´s most notable work is the "Catrina" where a skeleton is dressed up in the fanciest clothes of the time to represent the corrupt society under which he lived. It was this theme that got him national recognition and even landed him in jail a couple of times.
From the outset of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and up until his death on January 20, 1913, Posada worked without rest for the workers press where he established his notoriety becoming an influence on other artists such as José Clemente Orozco. There are collections of his works at the Bellas Artes National Institute, the Biblioteca de Mexico ("Library of Mexico"), the National Library of Anthropology and History and the Municipal Archive of the city of León and Posada is a listed artist in Davenport's Art Reference and Mallett.