Documentary

Monday, April 30, 2012

Mexican Folkways, Frances Toor, Anita Brenner and Jose Guadalupe Posada

Pictured here is the front cover of Mexican Folkways which was a Mexico City based magazine published from 1925-1937. The magazine was bi-lingual in Spanish and English. Its founder/publisher was Frances Toor(b.1890- d.1956), an American woman and anthropolgist who in 1922 came to study in Mexico City and essentially made Mexico her home. Diego Rivera, became the magazine's art editor in 1926 and in this 1928 edition we see cover art by Rivera but more importantly inside is the first significant article about Jose Guadalupe Posada. It is written by author Anita Brenner (b. 1905 - d. 1974), born in Aguascalientes, Mexico which was also the birthplace of Posada. The article appearing in this edition of Mexican Folkways would later be incorporated into Brenner's 1929 book, Idols Behind Altars. These publications set the stage for the first comprehesive collection of Posada's works, Monografia, that would be published in 1930 by Frances Toor and Mexican Folkways.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Earliest Reference to Posada and Vanegas Arroyo

One of the first people to publish a reference about Jose Guadalupe Posada and Antonio Vanegas Arroyo was Mexican painter, printmaker, writer and some say also a volcanologist, Gerardo Murillo (Jalisco, Guadalajara, b. 1875 - d. 1964). He signed his works as "Dr. Atl" (atl = the Nahuatl word for water). Pictured here is the front cover to the two volume set of Los Artes Populares de Mexico published in 1922; five years after the death of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo and nine years after the death of Posada. In the second volume Dr. Atl briefly reviews printmaking and aspects of literature such as songs, religious works and what might be called "tabloid-like" publications of Mexico. The publishing house of Vanegas Arroyo is discussed and grabador "Guadalupe Posadas" is very briefly mentioned; significantly, the printing house is described as one of the leading printing establishments of it kind and for the time. A variety of Posada's images are pictured in the volume, some of the engravings/etchings are signed by Posada and some unassigned images are also reproduced.