Special Dossier: DEATH: José Guadalupe POSADA I

When José Guadalupe Posada, Mexican engraver and illustrator, died in 1913 there were no mourners; he was eventually interred in a common grave. Throughout his career in Mexico City, he worked in seeming obscurity, producing vivid illustrations for penny sheets that sold on street corners and outdoor markets. The urban lower classes that bought his works had little idea who he was. He left behind neither descendants nor writings, yet today his fame is international. Mexicans regard him among their greatest artists, and his reputation is nearly as great in the United States.

Posada was a model for the Mexican muralists as a popular artist producing vivid and simple images in a distinctively non-European mode with strong elements of political satire. He is best known for his calaveras, witty images of skeletons performing the rituals and pleasures of everyday life. Often dressed in bourgeois finery, they mock the pretensions and vanity of the living.