November is a month of Mexican celebration.
It opens with Dia de los Muertos and includes the mid-month anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. First Friday gallerygoers can learn more about both in exhibits and events at the Mexican Consulate and the Mattie Rhodes Art Center.
In Mexico, Dia de los Muertos is a time to remember lost loved ones. Families create altars, or ofrendas, laden with the deceased’s favorite foods, games and beverages, as well as photographs and other memorabilia.
You can see a broad selection of ofrendas made by local families at Mattie Rhodes, which will hold a Dia de Los Muertos celebration from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. The evening will include food, live music by Mariachi Grupo Musico, a costume parade through the West Side neighborhood and free prints from the Print Factory.
History and art come together in the Mexican Consulate’s exhibit, “Jose Guadalupe Posada: The Mexican Revolution Through the Eyes of an Artist.”
Have a look Friday, but plan to return to take advantage of the wealth of information provided with the prints.
The exhibit is like an illustrated guide of events leading up to the revolution, including the fall of dictator Porfirio Diaz, the ascendance of Francisco Madero as president of Mexico, and his murder in 1913 by Gen. Victoriano Huerta, which lit the revolution’s flames.
Enlivened by what Mexican Consul Jacob Prado calls Posada’s “black sense of humor,” the exhibit is entertaining as well.
Posada (1852-1913) didn’t live to see the revolution’s culmination, but he meticulously chronicled the conditions and personalities that set it in motion. His prints depict the poverty and disparities in wealth that fueled the people’s discontent and the revolutionaries who fought on their behalf.
The show makes it cinematic: One print shows Madero standing at a podium, speaking to his supporters. Next to it is Posada’s portrayal of a rally against the re-election of Porfirio Diaz. Some images show revolutionaries on the attack; in others, they are lined up before government firing squads.
Posada was best known for his illustrations and comic strips.
“He pictured the everyday life of people, when most were illiterate,” said Alejandro Siqueiros, the consulate’s coordinator of economic and cultural affairs.
In addition to his images related to the revolution, the exhibit includes a sampling of Posada’s popular illustrations addressing human foibles and misdeeds. A striking print portrays the serial killer Bejarano with one of her hapless female victims.
A print titled “Infamous Daughter Who Kills Her Parents” shows the daughter doing the deed, egged on by two comical little devils.
More Dia de Los Muertos
The consulate exhibit and the celebration at Mattie Rhodes are part of a collaboration with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which is featuring an exhibit of 32 Posada prints just off Kirkwood Hall. They are drawn from the same Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs collection as the consulate show.
Filled with images of the playful skeletons and calaveras (skulls) that are emblems of the Day of the Dead, the Nelson exhibit continues through Feb. 12.
No comments:
Post a Comment