The Trout Gallery is currently presenting the works of Mexican satirical illustrator José Guadalupe Posada, one of the first artists to depict calaveras, or “skulls,” iconic images that have come to symbolize the Mexican celebration, Día De Los Muertos. Otherwise known as All Souls Day, the three-day celebration started the evening of Oct. 31 and extended Nov. 2.

The exhibition was introduced on Friday, Oct. 28 with a lecture from guest curator Diane Miliotes. In her lecture, entitled “José Guadalupe Posada and the Mexican Penny Press,” Miliotes discussed Posada’s work, life and the turbulent political and social environment of his time.

This lecture was the first event in a series surrounding the exhibit. A two-day conference will be held from Nov. 4 – Nov. 6, which will provide “a forum to address the various and manifold developments in the fields of humor and politics in Latin America,” according to the Dickinson College website. The conference will include an alter offerings event, a keynote speaker, and a panel, among other events.

Phillip Earenfight, the director of the Trout Gallery and associate professor of Art and Art History, introduced Miliotes. Earenfight said that he was “quite honored to have this privilege [of introducing Posada’s work],” and said that his hope was to “[bring] really outstanding objects into contact with really outstanding people.”

Miliotes opened her lecture with a brief history of the printing machine in Mexico, followed by a discussion of the concept of the Day of the Dead in Mexico and the culture around Posada’s well-known skeletons that have become a symbol of the holiday.

She described Posada’s most famous calavera, La Catrina, as a “raucus party that [has] come back from the grave.”

Miliotes also spoke of Posada’s life and artistic training. She described the “portly gentleman” as “a kind of innovator…taking advantage of new technological techniques.”  His unconventional artisanal training, unlike a fine arts education, is a “distinction [that] is important in many ways,” said Miliotes. Posada’s images were “made on demand,” and printed in Broadsheets – “ephemeral printed handbills…quickly and cheaply produced for middle-class, working people for a few centavos.” This medium “required [Posada] to be a master of compression…compression of space, compression of narrative.”

Miliotes wrapped up her lecture with a few questions from the audience.

Jennifer Messer, an attendee, said it was “really interesting to get the back story on images that I was familiar with seeing but knew nothing of their origin or history.”  She was intrigued by the “possibility that Posada may have been using photography to help him produce more images.”

The exhibit, the works of which are on loan from David J. Sellers ’06, will be in Trout Gallery until Feb. 18, 2017.

The lecture was held in Lecture Hall 235 on Friday, Oct. 28.