Posada Broadsides: of love and Betrayal/Posada inspired

Denver – Emmanuel Gallery is excited to announce the first shows of the summer featuring works by José Guadalupe Posada and Jerry Vigil. Posada’s Broadsheets: Of Love and Betrayal and Jerry Vigil Posada Inspired opens June 7, 2012 with a free public reception from 6:00-9:00pm. The exhibition will continue through July 19.

Posada’s Broadsheets will include 54 original broadsheets and broadsides from the archives of the University of New Mexico University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research. In tabloid terms, Jose Guadalupe Posada is viewed in the history of newsprint as a pioneering paparazzi. To paraphrase Octavio Paz, Posada was able to poke the powerful and document the salacious crimes and devastating natural disasters of his day with a ‘minimum of lines and a maximum of expression.” A Mexican engraver and illustrator, 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. The show will be divided into five themes: Calaveras, the skeleton art drawing from Day of the Dead imagery often used to make political or social statements; crime and punishment; natural disasters; devotional imagery of saints and La Virgen; and popular songs. This show was curated by Teresa Eckmann, PhD from the University of San Antonio Texas and will include extensive educational materials.

Jerry Vigil will be exhibiting works inspired by Posada. Vigil specializes in Santos art and El dia de los Muertos art and history. El dia de los Muertos has a few identifying symbols and images. The Calaveras or skeleton is one. The use of ‘skeletons’ or other icons deemed ‘horrifying’ to western cultures is a matter of cultural context. To the Mexican culture the specter of death is much closer and more tangible. To embrace the looming specter the celebration and the art of the Day of the Dead is meant to bring satire and to remove the fear. Vigil states, “ This is a style I created; I have taken from the traditional ‘folk’ style of the Calaveras and I have contemporized it. In one traditional application of the use of the Calaveras, the art piece is used to create a visual commentary of everyday life and events.” Vigil is ”Denver's Dean of the Dead" (Denver Post, 2005)

Emmanuel Gallery is a tri-institutional non-profit art space in the heart of Auraria Campus and downtown Denver. Our summer hours are Tuesday – Friday, 11:00-5:00 and Saturday, 12:00-4:00. We will be closed on June 30-July 4 for holiday.

Thank you to the University of New Mexico University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research for loaning the Posada Broadsheets. Thank you to the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center for the loan of Jerry Vigil work.