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 Vallarta Living | Art Talk | January 2007 
New Life For Old Bones
 Lea Lion - Los Angeles Downtown News
| | Puro Muerto: Contemporary Imagery of Day of the Dead celebrates the Mexican holiday of D’a de los Muertos through the eyes of contemporary artists. The exhibit runs through March 4 at the Central Library’s Getty Gallery. (Robert Palacios) |
The skeletons are singing, dancing and telling jokes. They are trick-or-treating and writing graffiti. They are playing accordions and sporting mohawks. There is even a skeleton couple doing what could only lead to skeleton babies.
These lively skulls and skeletons are part of a spirited collection titled Puro Muerto: Contemporary Imagery of Day of the Dead, celebrating the traditional Mexican holiday of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, through the eyes of contemporary artists. Although the festivities ended in November, the exhibit runs through March 4 at the Central Library's Getty Gallery.
Based on a book of the same name published by Downtown printmaking center La Mano Press, Puro Muerto includes more than 100 drawings, linocuts and paintings by mostly Los Angeles-based artists. The exhibit also includes selections by two 19th century Mexican illustrators, Manuel Manilla and Jose Guadalupe Posada, whose work provides a visual jumping-off point for many of the contemporary artists.
La Mano Press' master printmaker Artemio Rodriguez, whose signature black-and-white linocuts lend the exhibit much of its humor (the aforementioned skeleton couple is his), is heavily influenced by Posada. But Rodriguez is not just going for laughs; he often juxtaposes imagery to make a statement.
For example, one of his prints depicts a bride and groom skeleton couple standing side-by-side beneath a banner that reads "just married."
"The use of skulls lets me reflect and talk about a lot of different themes including political and sensitive issues," he wrote recently in an email from Mexico. "[The bride and groom image] says that death is very close to life, that there is an acceptance of that fact and it makes us appreciate life even more."
Cemetery Celebrations
The Day of the Dead is celebrated around the world on Nov. 1-2, but nowhere as extravagantly as it is in Mexico, where it is a national holiday. The dead are the guests of honor at the celebration, which invokes the memory of deceased relatives. To welcome the visiting spirits, celebrants attend family reunions, decorate their loved ones' graves, and create elaborate altars, or ofrendas. The colorful altars, traditionally rendered in miniature, feature fresh flowers, crosses, votive candles and wreaths.
Traditions vary by region. In Oaxaca, for example, it is customary to scatter trails of marigolds to guide the dead home. In some parts of the country children roam the streets in costume, while in others, people spend the night beside the graves of their relatives.
All Day of the Dead celebrations share the seemingly ubiquitous presence of skeletons and skulls in animated poses. The whole idea, explained Emilia Garcia, an artist whose work is on display in Puro Muerto, is to honor all aspects of life, including death.
"A lot of people who don't understand it think we are celebrating death or think, 'Oh this is goth,' but they don't realize that every time they take flowers to the cemetery they are doing the same thing. They are honoring the dead."
Garcia's "Los Maestros" depicts the iconic Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo on their wedding day. The painting mimics a well-known work by Kahlo. Except that in Garcia's painting, the artists are, what else, skeletons.
Puro Muerto is on view through March 4 at the Central Library, 630 W. Fifth St., (213) 228-7500 or lapl.org.
Contact Lea Lion at lea@downtownnews.com. |
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