Mexican calavera engraving Manuel Manilla, contemporary of Jose Guadalupe Posada

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Calavera: "Levantaos de sus fosas, calaveras, que aqui se halla el mayor de las troneras" engraving by Manuel Manilla (c. 1830-1895) You are bidding on an engraving by the late 19th-early 20th Century Mexican artist Manuel Manilla. Manilla created these engravings for the penny press of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, who went on to publish the work of Jose Guadalupe Posada. The engravings were originally used as illustrations for broadsides, advertisements, posters, and story booklets. This engraving, originally published in 1904, is a restrike, probably from the 1970s or 1980s. It was printed directly from the original plate by Arsacio Vanegas Arroyo, (the grandson of Antonio). Printed on light coated paper. One of the genres exploited by Vanegas Arroyo's press was the "calavera," made for Mexico's Day of the Dead, with caricatures in the form of skeletons. The calavera prints were made famous by Manilla's successor Posada, and the genre was later updated for political purposes by Mexico's famous political print workshop, the Taller de Grafica Popular (TGP). A generous selection of Manilla engravings was published in the book "Manilla: Monografia de 598 estampas de Manuel Manilla, grabador mexicano" by Mercurio Lopez Casillas (Mexico City: Editorial RM, 2005). This engraving is illustrated on page 86. It is also illustrated on page 50 of Lopez Casillas's "Images of Death in Mexican Prints" ( Mexico City: Editorial RM, 2008). See the ink stamps on the verso of some other Manilla engravings that are on the same paper and from the same collection as this one: "A. Vanegas Arroyo" and "Dr. Navarro." These ink stamps are shown to illustrate provenance. They are not on this print. I acquired these Manilla engravings as part of a large auction lot from the collection of Carla andGeorge Stellweg. A Columbia University website says: "Carla Stellweg is aLatin-Americanist who has worked as a museum and non-profit director, writer and editor, curator and professor. Ms. Stellweg is considered a pioneer promoter and facilitator in the Latin American international contemporary art field and has been instrumental in introducing many young and mid-career artists from Mexico, Latin America, Latino-U.S., Cuba and the Caribbean producing conceptual, socially-engaged art in both new and traditional media, working in NY and around the world. Starting her career in the 1970’s, she was the founder and editor of the first bilingual quarterly Contemporary Art Journal in Mexico, Artes Visuales, which is even today recognized for its seminal introduction of international, cutting-edge and conceptual art in an editorial approach that welcomed the offbeat significant visual culture of those times. She has since then published widely on a variety of topics and significant artists within the field. Ever since her move to New York in 1982, Stellweg established herself as a prime point of contact for all related to Latin American art. After 35 years of existence, her loft on Houston Street in SoHo has been widely used as a pied-� -terre for innumerable Pan-American artists, curators, collectors and individuals at all levels. In 2010, Stanford University Library – Special Collections purchased Ms. Stellweg’s 40-year archive based on the criteria of having played a pioneering role in promoting Latino and Latin American artists. Her archive of ephemera, artists books, mail art and rare portfolios is at present under consideration by MoMA’s Latin American archive and library. She currently is a professor in the Department of Visual Critical Studies and Art History at the School of Visual Arts, NY and is a visiting professor at the Estudios Posgrado of the UNAM (National Autonomous University Mexico City) and lecturer at the Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico." Sheet size: 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. Condition: generally good, but with some light creases and abrasions from handling. Slight skinning in the corners from old mounts. The engraving is not matted now but will look great when placed in a mat. read more

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