Jose Guadalupe Posada prints at the Flood Fine Arts Center

From a press release:

Jose Guadalupe Posada prints at the Flood Fine Arts Center

The Flood Gallery Fine Arts Center is pleased to announce it’s opening of limited edition Posada prints titled, “Posada: Marigolds & Skulls made possible by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The opening is November 1st from 6pm to 9pm at the Pump Gallery at 109 Roberts Street on the main floor of the Phil Mechanics Building.

The Jose Guadalupe Posada’s limited edition prints on display are print from the original plates. Sixty-Two prints are limited edition 944 of 1500, print in 1960 at the Museum of Graphic Arts in Mexico City. Twenty-Three other limited prints are from the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes print in 1943. There will also be several original prints on display from the collection of the Courtyard Gallery of the Flood Fine Arts Center.

Jose Guadalupe Posada, the father of Mexican printmaking, born in Aquascalientes, Mexico in 1852. In 1868, he was apprenticed to a local printmaker and publisher, Jose Trinidad Pedroza, who specialized in lithography, Posada’s first prints are in this medium. In 1872 Pedroza opened a second shop in the city of Leon and left Posada in charge of it. Posada bought the shop in 1876 but moved to Mexico City in 1888 to perfect his art and escape the politicians who were now back in power in his home city and upset with Posada’s satires of them.

In Mexico City, Posada found recognition as chief artist for Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, a prominent publisher of illustrated broadsides, gazettes, song books, chapbooks and other popular forms of illustrated literature. All of Posada’s now famous prints were produced for his publisher, Arroyo, and he continued to work closely with him until his death in 1913.

Posada’s prints cover an amazing range of imagery. National events, disasters, miracles, abnormalities, executions, illustrations to popular songs, broadsheets, protests to modern machines, and political protests cover a large portion of his artistic oeuvre. But by far his best known work in the United States remain the Mexican Revolution images and thee ‘Calaveras’ that have permanently been placed at the summit of Mexican artistic expression. By means of the Calaveras (Spanish for skulls or skeletons) Posada was able to mime practically every human folly. Posada is to Mexico what Daumier, Goya and Hogarth are to their countries. To this day, any print in Mexico is referred to as a “Posada.” Masters of the succeeding generations, such as Rivera and Orozco, were deeply influenced and indebted to Posada’s art.

This exhibition of Jose Guadalupe Posada’s work contains examples of almost all of his different subjects and genres. A short lecture will be given during the opening November 1st, at 7pm by Volker Frank, PhD from UNCA who teaches Latin American Studies there.

This lecture and exhibition is made possible by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. All events are free and open to the public. For more information call 828—273-3332.