Skulls, Monsters, and Death: Re-examining the Mexican Printmaker José Guadalupe Posada
2025-03-10
As cultural critic Ilan Stavans notes, Posada's work transports us to a universe of gothic, grotesque, magical, and bizarre incidents, with death as a primary, not existential or painful, but irrevocable, social, and egalitarian theme. His world is filled with bats, griffins, skeletons, animal hybrids, snakes, explosions, pistols, demons, ghosts, and deformities. Instead of viewing these gruesome elements as a side note, we should consider their inherent significance.