farm city!

mexicka grafika.

José Guadalupe Posada. Mexican artist, engraver, printmaker, newspaperman, graphic designer, inspiration. 1852-1913.

Last winter I visited Southern Mexico and came across a book of Posada’s prints. It’s great and really gives a context for much Mexican folk art – the skeletons (calaveras) that have become associated with el dia de los muertos originally satirized the upper classes during the reign of Porfirio Diaz.

Posada died during the Mexican Revolution, but his work is an ode to the revolution, a print documenting the assassination of four zapatista soldiers.

As an aspiring/amateur printmaker myself, I’m grateful to have discovered Posada.