Si existe un tema que merece ser contado con cámaras, tiempo y honestidad periodística, ese es Skull art. Lo que revelan las investigaciones más rigurosas sobre este asunto va mucho más allá de lo que aparece en los titulares.
Los antecedentes
Skull art is found in various cultures of the world. Indigenous Mexican art celebrates the skeleton and uses it as a regular motif. The use of skulls and skeletons in art originated before the Conquest: The Aztecs excelled in stone sculptures and created striking carvings of their Gods. Coatlicue, the Goddess of earth and death, was portrayed with a necklace of human hearts, hands and a skull pendant. She was imbued with the drama and grandeur necessary to dazzle the subject people and to convey the image of an implacable state. The worship of death involved worship of life, while the skull – symbol of death – was a promise to resurrection. The Aztecs carved skulls in monoliths of lava, and made masks of obsidian and jade. Furthermore, the skull motif was used in decoration. They were molded on pots, traced on scrolls, woven into garments, and formalized into hieroglyphs. Hindu temples and depiction of some Hindu deities have displayed skull art.
Spanish invasion When the Spanish inv
Cómo se desarrolló
Posada’s drawings brought an awakening to the common man. He made those who could not read to understand what was happening in their country. Although the use of skulls and skeletons in art had been suppressed by foreign influences, it was still recognized among the poor in their celebrations of the Day of the Dead. Using skull art was Posada’s way to make a connection with the popular audience. Reproduced on box lids is his most famous engraving – la Calavera Catrina – which shows a fashionable lady in the guise of a skeleton. Diego Rivera called José Guadalupe Posada the greatest Mexican people’s artist. From this influence, Rivera painted common people living and working in their environment. His work also carried a social message.
Posada and Rivera deeply influenced the Jaliscano Jorge González Camarena, who disregarded the traditional methods and embraced the popular art of Posada and Rivera. Recurring battle scenes appear in González Camarena’s work where Revolutionary soldiers
Dato clave: Rufino Tamayo and the Oaxacan School Rufino Tamayo founded the Oaxacan school of painting on the principle that although painting must take place on the plastic level, it does not exclude the possibility that the work contain a profound consequence not altogether expressed.
Las voces que deben escucharse
Superstitions and saints Although modernly the ancient Aztec religious traditions that have remained are called brujeria by those who practice European religions, in Oaxaca – superstitions and saints are spoken in the same breath.
Rufino Tamayo and the Oaxacan School Rufino Tamayo founded the Oaxacan school of painting on the principle that although painting must take place on the plastic level, it does not exclude the possibility that the work contain a profound consequence not altogether expressed. Tamayo seemed to strip away man’s external self, found for instance in religion, in order to examine man’s fundamental fears. His fear of nature, of the cosmos, and above everything else, man’s fear of himself. The subtle and rich art of pre-Columbian times greatly inspired Tamayo. From this influence he painted man as a transparent flesh existing on a living skeleton.
Francisco Toledo On the other hand, Francisco Toledo painted his subjects as if they were x-rays. Salacious curiosity wi
El impacto real
Chicano / Mexican – American Often Chicano or Mexican American artists turn to their history, recently and notably Nancy Nieto brings a bold resurgence to the ancient tradition of Mexican skull art. Woven into a veil of rich colors and unconventional forms, adopted from the Oaxacan School, her work removes the veil of the mystery of life only to reveal the mystery of death. She shows depths of mystery yet has a harmonious eurhythmic note of the epic origins of the chromatic Oaxaca. She struggles to re-address Francisco Toledo’s erotic themes, and to step away from Rodolfo Nieto’s dramatic tomes. Her work renews the Aztec view of death as a transitional cycle between the individual life and the ubiquitous “to be”.
Por qué esta historia importa
La historia de Skull art no es solo un relato del pasado. Es un espejo que nos ayuda a entender el México de hoy — sus contradicciones, su resiliencia, sus retos y su potencial. Conocerla es un primer paso hacia una conversación más honesta sobre el país y la sociedad que queremos construir.
[ ENCUESTA RÁPIDA ]