Fernando Gamboa Collection of Prints by José Guadalupe Posada
Collection
Identifier: PICT-999-019
Scope and Content
This collection, compiled by noted Mexican art historian Fernando Gamboa, contains broadsides, portraits, chapbooks, and restrikes. The Gamboa collection consists of lithographs, etchings, and engravings by José Guadalupe Posada. A small number of prints in this collection have been attributed to Manuel Manilla or to other, unidentified printmakers. Many of these were published by the Vanegas Arroyo firm in Mexico City. The Gamboa collection contains 361 items: broadsides (108), bullfighter portrait series (5), chapbooks (9), leaflets (19), chapbook covers (12), and restrikes (208).
Included in the collection are songbooks, single-sheet corridos (popular ballads), how-to booklets on writing love letters and cooking, books of predictions, gameboards, lithographic portraits of bullfighters, devotional texts and images, and children's literature. All are illustrated by José Guadalupe Posada or, in some cases by Manuel Manilla and other (unidentified) artists. The restrikes were made c.1940-1944. These are prints of the illustration blocks without text. Subjects range from humorous to didactic, romantic to religious and political. Posada's signature "calaveras" (humorous skeletal figures) are represented, as are sensational crime and supernatural subjects, and popular songs printed by Mexico City's leading penny press publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. Print processes include etching, type-metal engraving, and lithography.
Included in the collection are songbooks, single-sheet corridos (popular ballads), how-to booklets on writing love letters and cooking, books of predictions, gameboards, lithographic portraits of bullfighters, devotional texts and images, and children's literature. All are illustrated by José Guadalupe Posada or, in some cases by Manuel Manilla and other (unidentified) artists. The restrikes were made c.1940-1944. These are prints of the illustration blocks without text. Subjects range from humorous to didactic, romantic to religious and political. Posada's signature "calaveras" (humorous skeletal figures) are represented, as are sensational crime and supernatural subjects, and popular songs printed by Mexico City's leading penny press publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. Print processes include etching, type-metal engraving, and lithography.
Dates
- 1888-1944
Creator
- Gamboa, Fernando, 1909-1990 (Person)
Language of Materials
Spanish
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Copy Restrictions
Duplication of print and photographic material is allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for copyright compliance. For more information see the Photographs and Images Research Guide and contact the Pictorial Archivist.
Biographies
Little is known of Posada’s personal life. He was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in 1852 and, in his youth, learned the art of lithography. By 1871, he was making satirical illustrations for a local paper, El Jicote (The Hornet). From there he moved to the town of León de las Aldamas (Guanajuato) in 1872, where he worked as an illustrator and commercial artist. His lithographs from that period are technically and compositionally sophisticated. In 1888, perhaps because of the cataclysmic spring flood that swept León that year, Posada left for Mexico City, where he remained for the rest of his life.
In the beginning, he went from publisher to publisher to sell his work. Often, he made a print on the spot: a quick illustration for some sensational bit of news or, perhaps a popular song - whatever was needed. After a few years, he joined the staff of Mexico's leading publisher of popular literature, Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. It was a fortuitous, mutually beneficial arrangement. The fame of both artistand publisher reside largely upon the body of work produced from this collaboration.
In Vanegas Arroyo’s shop, Posada worked alongside other illustrators, including Manuel Manilla. There, Posada radically transformed both his style and technique to meet the demands of the penny press and his new urban audience. He developed an expressive shorthand to produce rapid, legible, and appealing illustrations. At first, he worked exclusively in type-metal engraving, like Manilla. This was a relatively fast and cheap way to produce a relief block that could be printed at the same time as the text. The resulting prints have a rigid quality and appear as "white line" images on predominantly dark ground. While he continued to work in type-metal engraving, he also developed a rapid relief etching technique using an acid-resistant ink (similar to what William Blake had done in England a century earlier). This allowed Posada much greater freedom since he could draw on, rather than carve, the metal-faced printing block. The fluidity of his etched black line across the brightly colored papers favored by the Vanegas Arroyo firm is characteristic of many of Posada’s most expressive prints.
The subjects of his broadsides, especially the popular ballads known as corridos, often recall the feats of legendary folk heroes. The lower classes who purchased these could enjoy a vicarious victory over the daily injustices and coercion of landowners and government officials who were so cavalierly flaunted by the tough and daring bandits or valientes celebrated in the verses. The broadsides, cheaply produced and hawked on the streets of Mexico City for pennies, were printed on brightly colored tissue or poor quality paper. These ephemeral fliers were never intended to last, let alone find their way into museums and libraries.
Times change, and with it technology and sensibilities. Manual methods of illustration were replaced by photography in the early decades of the twentieth century. Some rare broadsheets produced by the Vanegas Arroyo firm combine the colored tissue format with photomechanical imagery. Jean Charlot noted a change in audience sensibility: grown accustomed to the greater realism of photography by the time of the Mexican Revolution, people began to reject the "medieval symbolism" of Posada’s graphic interpretations
Posada’s work has continued to receive accolades. Like the muralists, the printmakers of Mexico’s Taller de Gráfica Popular (1937-) consider Posada their direct antecedent and inspiration. Leopoldo Méndez depicted Posada making a print in his workshop as he observed the social and political strife on the streets outside his window.
Posada’s imagery has appeared in everything from Chicano murals to rock music album covers and book jackets in recent years. In a paradoxical prophecy, Diego Rivera once said: "Posada was so great that perhaps one day his name will be forgotten." It is true that many people who are familiar with his dynamic and imaginative calaveras – even those who continue to use and modify his work – have never heard his name.
Posada’s was a life of hard work, relative poverty, and anonymity. Yet, within this context he created a body of work of incredible orginality and expressiveness, employing a remarkable economy of artistic and material means. As his calaveras remind us, death makes fools of us all. Rich and poor, proud and humble are placed on a level playing field. The closest we can come to immortality is the longevity of those who leave something universal behind, such as Posada.
Fernando Gamboa
Fernando Gamboa was an art historian and director of the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. An early collector of Posada’s work, Gamboa contributed to several exhibits, including the important 1944 show held at the Art Institute of Chicago.
José Guadalupe Posada
José Guadalupe Posada’s work is internationally recognized today. Yet, in his time he was considered a mere artisan, a commercial illustrator producing images on short deadlines for the Mexican equivalent of the American or English penny press. After his death in 1913, he was largely unknown. His work was rediscovered a decade later by Jean Charlot and the artists of the Mexican Renaissance, who recognized a predecessor in Posada and acknowledged him as "the artist of the Mexican people." Like the muralists of the 1920s-1940s, Posada worked in a narrative style that was intelligible to the great masses of Mexico’s people. From his viewpoint as a member of the urban, working class, Posada created a portrait of his life and times as one of great originality, force, and humor.
Little is known of Posada’s personal life. He was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in 1852 and, in his youth, learned the art of lithography. By 1871, he was making satirical illustrations for a local paper, El Jicote (The Hornet). From there he moved to the town of León de las Aldamas (Guanajuato) in 1872, where he worked as an illustrator and commercial artist. His lithographs from that period are technically and compositionally sophisticated. In 1888, perhaps because of the cataclysmic spring flood that swept León that year, Posada left for Mexico City, where he remained for the rest of his life.
In the beginning, he went from publisher to publisher to sell his work. Often, he made a print on the spot: a quick illustration for some sensational bit of news or, perhaps a popular song - whatever was needed. After a few years, he joined the staff of Mexico's leading publisher of popular literature, Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. It was a fortuitous, mutually beneficial arrangement. The fame of both artistand publisher reside largely upon the body of work produced from this collaboration.
In Vanegas Arroyo’s shop, Posada worked alongside other illustrators, including Manuel Manilla. There, Posada radically transformed both his style and technique to meet the demands of the penny press and his new urban audience. He developed an expressive shorthand to produce rapid, legible, and appealing illustrations. At first, he worked exclusively in type-metal engraving, like Manilla. This was a relatively fast and cheap way to produce a relief block that could be printed at the same time as the text. The resulting prints have a rigid quality and appear as "white line" images on predominantly dark ground. While he continued to work in type-metal engraving, he also developed a rapid relief etching technique using an acid-resistant ink (similar to what William Blake had done in England a century earlier). This allowed Posada much greater freedom since he could draw on, rather than carve, the metal-faced printing block. The fluidity of his etched black line across the brightly colored papers favored by the Vanegas Arroyo firm is characteristic of many of Posada’s most expressive prints.
The subjects of his broadsides, especially the popular ballads known as corridos, often recall the feats of legendary folk heroes. The lower classes who purchased these could enjoy a vicarious victory over the daily injustices and coercion of landowners and government officials who were so cavalierly flaunted by the tough and daring bandits or valientes celebrated in the verses. The broadsides, cheaply produced and hawked on the streets of Mexico City for pennies, were printed on brightly colored tissue or poor quality paper. These ephemeral fliers were never intended to last, let alone find their way into museums and libraries.
Times change, and with it technology and sensibilities. Manual methods of illustration were replaced by photography in the early decades of the twentieth century. Some rare broadsheets produced by the Vanegas Arroyo firm combine the colored tissue format with photomechanical imagery. Jean Charlot noted a change in audience sensibility: grown accustomed to the greater realism of photography by the time of the Mexican Revolution, people began to reject the "medieval symbolism" of Posada’s graphic interpretations
Posada’s work has continued to receive accolades. Like the muralists, the printmakers of Mexico’s Taller de Gráfica Popular (1937-) consider Posada their direct antecedent and inspiration. Leopoldo Méndez depicted Posada making a print in his workshop as he observed the social and political strife on the streets outside his window.
Posada’s imagery has appeared in everything from Chicano murals to rock music album covers and book jackets in recent years. In a paradoxical prophecy, Diego Rivera once said: "Posada was so great that perhaps one day his name will be forgotten." It is true that many people who are familiar with his dynamic and imaginative calaveras – even those who continue to use and modify his work – have never heard his name.
Posada’s was a life of hard work, relative poverty, and anonymity. Yet, within this context he created a body of work of incredible orginality and expressiveness, employing a remarkable economy of artistic and material means. As his calaveras remind us, death makes fools of us all. Rich and poor, proud and humble are placed on a level playing field. The closest we can come to immortality is the longevity of those who leave something universal behind, such as Posada.
Little is known of Posada’s personal life. He was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in 1852 and, in his youth, learned the art of lithography. By 1871, he was making satirical illustrations for a local paper, El Jicote (The Hornet). From there he moved to the town of León de las Aldamas (Guanajuato) in 1872, where he worked as an illustrator and commercial artist. His lithographs from that period are technically and compositionally sophisticated. In 1888, perhaps because of the cataclysmic spring flood that swept León that year, Posada left for Mexico City, where he remained for the rest of his life.
In the beginning, he went from publisher to publisher to sell his work. Often, he made a print on the spot: a quick illustration for some sensational bit of news or, perhaps a popular song - whatever was needed. After a few years, he joined the staff of Mexico's leading publisher of popular literature, Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. It was a fortuitous, mutually beneficial arrangement. The fame of both artistand publisher reside largely upon the body of work produced from this collaboration.
In Vanegas Arroyo’s shop, Posada worked alongside other illustrators, including Manuel Manilla. There, Posada radically transformed both his style and technique to meet the demands of the penny press and his new urban audience. He developed an expressive shorthand to produce rapid, legible, and appealing illustrations. At first, he worked exclusively in type-metal engraving, like Manilla. This was a relatively fast and cheap way to produce a relief block that could be printed at the same time as the text. The resulting prints have a rigid quality and appear as "white line" images on predominantly dark ground. While he continued to work in type-metal engraving, he also developed a rapid relief etching technique using an acid-resistant ink (similar to what William Blake had done in England a century earlier). This allowed Posada much greater freedom since he could draw on, rather than carve, the metal-faced printing block. The fluidity of his etched black line across the brightly colored papers favored by the Vanegas Arroyo firm is characteristic of many of Posada’s most expressive prints.
The subjects of his broadsides, especially the popular ballads known as corridos, often recall the feats of legendary folk heroes. The lower classes who purchased these could enjoy a vicarious victory over the daily injustices and coercion of landowners and government officials who were so cavalierly flaunted by the tough and daring bandits or valientes celebrated in the verses. The broadsides, cheaply produced and hawked on the streets of Mexico City for pennies, were printed on brightly colored tissue or poor quality paper. These ephemeral fliers were never intended to last, let alone find their way into museums and libraries.
Times change, and with it technology and sensibilities. Manual methods of illustration were replaced by photography in the early decades of the twentieth century. Some rare broadsheets produced by the Vanegas Arroyo firm combine the colored tissue format with photomechanical imagery. Jean Charlot noted a change in audience sensibility: grown accustomed to the greater realism of photography by the time of the Mexican Revolution, people began to reject the "medieval symbolism" of Posada’s graphic interpretations
Posada’s work has continued to receive accolades. Like the muralists, the printmakers of Mexico’s Taller de Gráfica Popular (1937-) consider Posada their direct antecedent and inspiration. Leopoldo Méndez depicted Posada making a print in his workshop as he observed the social and political strife on the streets outside his window.
Posada’s imagery has appeared in everything from Chicano murals to rock music album covers and book jackets in recent years. In a paradoxical prophecy, Diego Rivera once said: "Posada was so great that perhaps one day his name will be forgotten." It is true that many people who are familiar with his dynamic and imaginative calaveras – even those who continue to use and modify his work – have never heard his name.
Posada’s was a life of hard work, relative poverty, and anonymity. Yet, within this context he created a body of work of incredible orginality and expressiveness, employing a remarkable economy of artistic and material means. As his calaveras remind us, death makes fools of us all. Rich and poor, proud and humble are placed on a level playing field. The closest we can come to immortality is the longevity of those who leave something universal behind, such as Posada.
Extent
361 items (12 boxes) : 108 broadsides, 5 portrait series, 9 chapbooks, 12 chapbook covers, 208 restrikes
Abstract
This collection consists of lithographs, etchings, and engravings by José Guadalupe Posada. It was compiled by noted Mexican art historian, Fernando Gamboa.
Physical Location
B2. Shelved in High Security by Pictorial Number.
Posada Prints Online
Prints by José Guadalupe Posada from this collection are available, along with other Posada prints, in the José Guadalupe Posada Collection of Mexican Popular Prints, part of the Center for Southwest Research's digital Pictorial Collections.
- Brigands and robbers -- Mexico
- Broadsides -- Mexico
- Bullfighters -- Mexico
- Caricatures and cartoons -- Mexico
- Chapbooks, Mexican
- Children's literature, Mexican
- Corridos -- Mexico
- Death in art
- Devotional images - Mexico
- Engraving (prints)
- Etchings
- Lithographs
- Mexican wit and humor, Pictorial
- Mexico -- Revolution, 1910-1920
- Mexico -- Social life and customs
- Posada, José Guadalupe, 1852-1913
- Prints, Mexican
- Restrikes
- Songbooks, Mexican
- Vanegas Arroyo, Antonio, 1852-1917
Creator
- Gamboa, Fernando, 1909-1990 (Person)
- Title
- Finding Aid of the Fernando Gamboa Collection of Prints by José Guadalupe Posada, 1888-1944
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Stella de Sa Rego
- Date
- © 2008
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is in English
- Sponsor
- Funding provided by: Center for Regional Studies, University of New Mexico
Revision Statements
- Monday, 20210524: Attribute normal is missing or blank.
Repository Details
Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository
Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu