| The Atomic
Apocalypse, by the Linares family
Mexico City, AD 1983
The Mexican Day of the Dead
The celebration of the festivals of
All Saints and All Souls at the beginning of November evolved in
Mexico into a joyful and ironic commemoration of the dead who
experience a brief return to the pleasures of their former
existence. Death is personified in many materials - in printed
images, in sugar, paper stencils cut with chisels and papier mâché -
the skeletons often appearing in scenes which are used as a vehicle
for social and political satire. The most famous artist associated
with this genre was José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) whose
satirical broadsheets took their name from the word for skeleton or
skull, Calavera. They were greatly admired as a form of folk
art by many left-wing artists in particular, including the Russian
film director Sergei Eisenstein, who was working in Mexico in
1931-32.
Among the most notable heirs to this tradition are the Linares
family of Mexico City, who specialize in the production of elaborate
and sometimes large-scale papier mâché figures, their imagery often
inspired by Posada's prints. The Atomic Apocalypse is
composed of 132 pieces which includes specific references to actual
events and areas of ongoing political conflict, such as the bombing
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the Biafran War (1966-70) and the
regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1901-89) in Iran. It was
acquired in 1989 by the British Museum's Department of Ethnography,
and included as part of The Skeleton at the Feast, an
exhibition devoted to the Day of the Dead at the Museum of Mankind
from 1991 to 1994. |