Arts & Culture

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- An exhibition featuring rarely seen original broadsides and prints of calaveras (Spanish for skulls or skeletons) by Mexican printmakers Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) and Manuel Manilla (1830-1895) is now open at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco, CA. The exhibition entitled "Bring Back the Dead: The Grand Cemetery of J.G. Posada and M. Manilla Calaveras -A Memoriam for the Dead" will run until November 21, 2009 and provides a sampling of the many calavera images popularly associated with Day of the Dead.

While working for Mexico City publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, Posada and Manilla created thousands of images to illustrate "penny press" broadsides that were commonly used to communicate news and editorials. During Dia de los Muertos, broadsides would feature calavera images often satirizing some current event or person and equally, depicting calaveras in life-mocking activities, reminding readers of their common destiny.

The show honors Posada and Manilla for their contribution and influence on generations of artists including Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, who would later credit Posada for his inspiration and influence. In 1937, the printers' collective Taller de Grafica Popular was founded in Mexico City, again demonstrating Posada's influence through artists Leopoldo Mendez, Pablo O'Higgins and Luis Arenal. Countless Chicano art images and Rock and Roll's The Grateful Dead are recent examples of Posada's influence.

The exhibition displays calaveras as they were first seen in original broadsides and also as limited edition restrikes produced by www.newworldprints.com pulled from the original printing blocks by master printer Phil Sanders of the Robert Blackburn Print Workshop in New York. Selected prints are available for purchase at the exhibition gallery.

About New World Prints
New World Prints maintains a private collection of work generated by Mexican printmakers, Jose Guadalupe Posada and Manuel Manilla. The collection contains thousands of printed items and an extensive assemblage of over two hundred original printing blocks. Newworldprints.com offers limited edition restrikes pulled from the original printing blocks contained in the collection.

Contact: James Nikas, tel.415-860-4250, jimnikas@gmail.com, www.newworldprints.com. Or Maurizzio Pineda, Gallery Coordinator, 415-643-2797, website www.missionculturalcenter.org

SOURCE New World Prints