José Guadalupe Posada (Mexican, 1852–1913), was an important printmaker in pre-revolutionary Mexico. His bold, simplified, and direct manner of communicating his political views had a profound influence on the work and ideology of the artists who in 1937 formed the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Popular Graphic Arts Workshop) in Mexico City, and subsequent generations of printmakers in Mexico, the United States, and Europe. Posada’s illustrations were readily understood by the mostly illiterate Mexican population through his use of familiar images, such as the caricature of the calavera (skeleton), to satirize Mexican social and political abuses and injustices.
This small exhibition of graphic works selected from the Museum’s collection will mark the centennial of Posada’s death, and feature prints created by Posada, as well as his artistic heirs, such as Leopoldo Méndez, who continued his tradition of using mass-produced relief prints with strong, simple, graphic images to communicate social commentary and political propaganda to the general population.
This exhibition will run from August 25 to October 13, 2013.