Book Description

Now available for the first time in English, this volume brings the distinctly Mexican flavor of José Guadalupe Posada's work home to the reader with the striking design of its uncoated pages in the three different colors of the Mexican flag: green, white and red. Interspersed with a varied selection of the artist's engravings--broadsheets, corridos, chapbooks, vignettes, calaveras, games and a long etcetera of miscellaneous material featuring subjects like bullfights, Day of the Dead and crimes of passion--are two long texts by recognized authorities on the work of Posada. One essay deals with Posada's place in the wider tradition of graphic art and engraving, even as it follows his remarkable career from lithographer in the Mexican provinces to "popular" artist representing the quintessential expression of the Mexican Revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century. The other looks at Posada's role as a "professional of the image" in the changing world of publishing for a nascent but fast-growing reading public in late-nineteenth-century Mexico. Finally, the volume contains a biographical chronology of Posada's life and work, a bibliography and more than 600 fascinating reproductions.