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Jean Charlot He had been a most prolific artist illustrating thousands of sensational news events for Mexico's only tabloid. But when Jose Guadalupe Posada died of alcohol poisoning in 1913 at the age of 61, he was alone and unknown.
rescued artist
from obscurity
Jose Guadalupe Posada's
pennysheets were prized
by the Hawaii artistBy Suzanne Tswei
Star-BulletinWith no one to pay his funeral expenses, Posada was buried in a common grave with the nameless indigents of Mexico City.
It would have been the end of the story if not for Hawaii artist Jean Charlot, who had a keen eye for good art and an affinity for art appealing to the masses. The French-born Charlot, then a young struggling artist, had returned to the birthplace of his maternal grandfather and immediately became attracted to Posada's dramatic work.
The result is Hawaii is now home to a world-renowned collection of the artwork Posada created on metal plates for pennysheets, one-page newspapers costing a penny, that were similar in tone to modern-day tabloids.
ON VIEW
What: "Jose Guadalupe Posada: My Mexico," and "Jean Charlot: A Mexican Journey"
The pennysheets reported the most unusual news events and were immensely popular. In those days before photography, the printed illustrations created by artists like Posada were crucial to the pennysheets' success.
The Posada collection, more than 400 pennysheets, along with Charlot's own work, were donated to the University of Hawaii in 1982 after Charlot's death. For 10 years, the collection has been kept in Hamilton Library for scholarly research, but for the first time, beginning Sunday, the public has a chance to see Posada's work in an exhibit at the university's Art Gallery.
"This is really a very special opportunity to see his work. People in Hawaii may not know about him, and not know about our very fine collection, which may be the best in the world. But he is a wonderful artist and very, very famous in Mexico, and outside of Mexico," said gallery director Tom Klobe.
Klobe, who was a student of Charlot's, handpicked 200 pieces from the collection for the show to give a full range of Posada's abilities and the proper historical context. The exhibit is made up mostly of black-and-white pennysheet illustrations but there are also colorful and exotic children's book covers based on folklore.
To complement the Posada exhibit, a group of Charlot's work from his Mexico stay also is being shown at the Commons Gallery.
"Charlot was very passionate about Posada," said Klobe, who began researching and selecting pieces for the show in August."It was really Charlot who discovered Posada; before that nobody really knew about him. Charlot was a writer also and he was the first to write about Posada too," Klobe said.
Charlot's interest in Posada helped garner international recognition for the once obscure Mexican artist, considered a mere tradesman in his day, Klobe said.
"I am sure Charlot's own reputation helped. He was a very accomplished artist, and writer and teacher. If he said Posada was good, then other people paid attention," Klobe said.
Before Charlot moved to the islands in 1949 to teach at the University of Hawaii, he was a key player in the early 1900s renaissance of Mexican art. Charlot's writings about Mexican artists and fresco paintings helped to promote Mexican artists outside of their native land.
Posada, whose work was considered popular rather than academic, held special appeal to the classically schooled Charlot. The two artists could not have have been more different in their styles.
Charlot's work is poetic, graceful and elegant compared to Posada's vigorous, earthy and dramatic style, said Kansas professor Patrick Frank, an expert on Posada. Frank will speak about Posada at the art department auditorium before the show's opening reception.
"Charlot liked to depict quiet moments. His work tend to be picturesque and he liked the folkloric themes of Mexico, like religious processions, women selling flowers on the streets," Frank said.
"With Posada, there's a raw energy in his work. His prints are made with great zeal and gusto. They were just full of life and energy," Frank said.
The subjects of Posada's illustrations were lurid but timeless: sex, murder, greed, and other disasters of the human condition.
Posada's compositions were dynamic, clear and interesting. "You can always tell it's a Posada; there are always distinguishing characteristics. A mediocre artist is capable of depicting some kind of an event, that something's happening. But Posada could do it with a forceful energy that really brings the work to life."
Posada produced perhaps 2,000 illustrations in his career, although the estimate has been as high as 15,000, Frank said.
Little information is available on Posada other than can be gleaned from his work, which has survived largely due to collectors.
He was born and reared in rural central Mexico where he studied drawing in a trade school. He worked as a magazine illustrator for 10 years before moving to Mexico City where he began a long and fruitful association with a pennysheet publisher.
Posada's illustrations earned him a salary equivalent to that of a police sergeant, giving him a secure middle-class existence, Frank said. Posada was married and had a son, but both his wife and child died before him.
"Beyond that, what kind of man who was, what his daily life was like, we just don't know. The descendants of the publishers speak of Posada with reverence, but no one who's left alive actually knew him," Frank said.
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