"Calaveras" Broadsides at Auction
Coming to auction next week in San Francisco is a striking set of four letterpress broadsides by Mexican political printmaker José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913). Known as calaveras, from the Spanish word for skulls, these posters use macabre imagery to satirize the iron-fisted, 35-year presidency of Porfirio Díaz. Though he died poor and obscure, Posada's style influenced many artists and cartoonists and is closely associated with the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos, the Day of the Dead (October 31). 
PBA Galleries is offering the posters, published c. 1910 by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, as one lot containing Calavera de la Penitenciaria, Calaveras Dominigales, Calavera del Drenaje (pictured here), and Barata de Calaveras. The estimate is $1,500-2,500.
To read (and see) more about Posada's art, go here.
Image via PBA Galleries.
