This book is a must-have for any design aficionado, featuring José Guadalupe Posada's amazing illustrations for "penny chapbooks," which were published in large numbers for the consumption of a growing public of literate but poorly educated Mexicans in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Posada: Illustrator of Chapbooks (Library of Mexican Illustrators)

Arts & Photography

Casillas, Mercurio

History & Criticism

Editorial RM

Horned, animated human skeletons, nineteenth century circus figures, devils, demons, card sharps, conjurers, bullfighters and boxers are just some of the 600 images that populate this exquisitely tactile first book in English devoted entirely to the Mexican engraver Manuel Manilla--a remarkably original artist in his own right, and an influence on his more famous colleague and successor, José Guadalupe Posada. Manilla's illustrations for newspapers, broadsides, posters, chapbooks, pamphlets and games are the work of a sensitive portraitist of Mexican social mores, an artist of magical imagination and a master engraver. Richly illustrated with examples of every aspect of Manilla's extremely diverse work, the volume includes an authoritative text on Manilla by Mercurio López Casillas. In addition to offering an overview of the work of this still little-known artist, the essay clarifies the often tangled publishing history of the images and deals with the difficult questions of authorship and attribution in the world of late-nineteenth-century broadside, periodical and penny press publications. A useful chronology of Manilla's life and work is also included. Finally, a special feature of the book, whose striking design recalls the famous Mexican Folkways monograph devoted to Posada in 1930, is the reprint of a text by the 1920s mural painter Jean Charlot, one of the first artists to recognize the importance of Manilla in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.

Manuel Manilla: Mexican Engraver: Monograph of 598 Prints

Now available for the first time in English, this volume brings the distinctly Mexican flavor of José Guadalupe Posada's work home to the reader with the striking design of its uncoated pages in the three different colors of the Mexican flag: green, white and red. Interspersed with a varied selection of the artist's engravings--broadsheets, corridos, chapbooks, vignettes, calaveras, games and a long etcetera of miscellaneous material featuring subjects like bullfights, Day of the Dead and crimes of passion--are two long texts by recognized authorities on the work of Posada. One essay deals with Posada's place in the wider tradition of graphic art and engraving, even as it follows his remarkable career from lithographer in the Mexican provinces to "popular" artist representing the quintessential expression of the Mexican Revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century. The other looks at Posada's role as a "professional of the image" in the changing world of publishing for a nascent but fast-growing reading public in late-nineteenth-century Mexico. Finally, the volume contains a biographical chronology of Posada's life and work, a bibliography and more than 600 fascinating reproductions.

Posada: Mexican Engraver

Boadella, Montserrat

Over the past two centuries, Mexican culture has kept up a unique dialogue with the fact of death, rather than defying it as most contemporary cultures are wont to do. Today, Mexico even boasts a Museum of Death (in Aguascalientes), filled with pre-Columbian sculpture and pottery, reproductions of ancient Indian codices depicting human sacrifices, colonial-era artworks, skeletons, artisan’s toys and works by the countless Modern artists who have treated the theme. It is, of course, in Mexico’s arts that the blend of respect and irreverence for death and the afterlife is made most clear. Here, Mercurio López Casillas, expert on nineteenth-century Mexican graphic art and the author of studies of José Guadalupe Posada and Manuel Manilla, surveys the subject from pre-Hispanic times to the comic pages of contemporary Mexican newspapers. López Casillas examines the long tradition of representing death and skeleton figures that leads up to Posada, and traces the influence of this great popular engraver in the work of many other twentieth-century artists, including those of the Taller de Gráfica Popular workshop, like Leopoldo Méndez. Readers of this richly illustrated book will also be fascinated by early colonial examples of calaveras, or skeleton caricatures. Images of Death is a colorful and lively deterrent against our habitual inclination to take the Grim Reaper too seriously. For enthusiasts of Mexican folk art, underground comics, tattoo art, the occult and more.

Images of Death in Mexican Prints (Library of Mexican Illustrators/ Biblioteca de Ilustradores Mexicanos) (English and Spanish Edition)

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Books by Casillas, Mercurio

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Casillas, Mercurio. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Posada: Illustrator of Chapbooks (Library of Mexican Illustrators)

Manuel Manilla: Mexican Engraver: Monograph of 598 Prints

Posada: Mexican Engraver

Images of Death in Mexican Prints (Library of Mexican Illustrators/ Biblioteca de Ilustradores Mexicanos) (English and Spanish Edition)