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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.
E. Carmichael and C. Sayer, The skeleton at the feast: the (London, The British Museum Press, 1991)